Evangelical Biblical-conservative political parties in Argentina: formation and decline 1991-2001

Abstract

The object of study of this paper is a series of attempts of creation of denominational political parties on the part of evangelical Biblical conservatives in Argentina, specially concentrated in Buenos Aires (Capital Federal) and its conurbano (a ring of surrounding counties known as partidos or municípios), between years 1991 and 2001, with antecedents at the beginning of the decade of the 80s. This study makes part of a major reach investigation in progress. The conceptual approach is based on social movements and frames theory, and the methodology in participative research, documentary analysis and interviews to the actors of all the involved segments. The main results show that the creation of parties arose as a project of demoliberal evangelicales in the early 80s but followed lead mainly from the 90s by “neoclassic” pentecostales while the endeavor leadership moved from Capital Federal to the conurbano. Then it evolved towards a reconstructionist utopia of subjection of the society to the Biblical, mainly inspired in the Old Testament, mandate, and later towards the inclusion in alliances with the center-left and the liberationist Catholicism, oriented by the utopia of subjection to the Biblical values taken from the Gospels. The endeavor did not progress in the congregations battle arena, to which it always went, because the pastors and federations of churches they managed, restricted the ccess, and because the Pentecostal vote seems not to be a docile “evangelical vote”: existing ethnographic and quantitative studies indicate affinities between the culture of the pentecostal public and the justicialismo (Peronism). From his study finally the author draws several theoretical conclusions. Key words: Evangelicals; Political parties; Argentina.