National Ministry of Culture and Education

Introduction

A frame of structural changes

Having recovered democracy in 1983, meant the beginning of a new stage. As from 1989, structural changes introduce Argentina to a process of profound transformations, as a result of its growing participation in the cultural, social, economical and political world trends at the turn of the century.

The most important changes which have taken place can be summed up as follows: new institutions and global insertion.

The Argentine Constitution originally dates from 1853. It is the legal background which fulfilled the expectations at a given time in history. The new processes require a specific legal frame. In such conditions, with a strong political consensus, a set of both political and institutional major reforms were ratified in 1994. This constitutional reform does not only affect the organization of power; legislative, executive and judiciary authorities, but also all the institutional levels: the Nation, the Provinces and the Municipalities, mainly adding new rights and guarantees.

At the same time, in 1989, new economical institutions were created to match the world's needs today; with a State limited to its specific activities, with public enterprises subject to competition or to professional regulating bodies, with growing freedom of markets; capital, work, goods and services. Daily, tax-payers are more prone to pay their taxes; consumers take a more active role and entrepreneurs devote themselves more efficiently to further production and to place themselves better in the markets.

The clue of these changes lies in the awareness that the anachronic economic model was exhausted. Once having acknowledged the structural causes of the stagnation and the specific responsibilities of both the political and economical authorities, a homogeneous set of measures was passed to restore specific functions to improve the distribution of resources and incomes to the public sector and the markets of good and services.