A FEW weeks ago, Argentina elected their version of Donald Trump, and by a large margin too, I am told.
Javier Milei is an eccentric economics professor, and a dedicated libertarian/anarcho-capitalist. He believes in reducing government spending, and letting the market dictate society’s trajectory.
Throughout his election campaign, Milei has stated that he will close down several government departments, slash government welfare/spending and use the dollar as Argentina’s currency.
Moreover, it’s worth mentioning that Milei is a charismatic figure and has gained attention all over the world. As a professor, he is not exactly a celebrity, but he has a lot of eccentricities.
He has dressed up as General AnCap (that’s a shorthand for Anarcho-Capitalist), for example, and he has attended his rallies with a chainsaw.
He was also a Tantric Sex instructor. Whatever people may think about his ideas, the man has energy and it shows.
But Milei’s election as Argentina’s president goes far beyond charisma or typical politics. If he successfully implements his Libertarian/Anarco-Capitalist policies, and they are successful, Argentina could act as proof that the Libertarian/Anarco-Capitalist model works.
This has important implications because the default strategy for most governments is to expand government and semi-government (e.g. public-partner partnerships) institutions, which in turn results in A) more government or B) the merger of government, nongovernment organizations, corporations and private Groups.
Milei offers Argentina a third option, and it’s an experimental one.
It’s worth mentioning that Argentina has suffered from years of bad economic performance largely due to bad government policies. If Milei can turn things around by removing said policies and the institutions that caused them, then he would have overturned a lot of modern assumptions of how governments and domestic politics ought to work.
But that is a big “if” and it’s possible that Milei can fail, and not necessarily due to domestic reasons.
For now, though, he has Argentina’s mandate and support, and a lot of people all over the world are eagerly watching how well his administration performs./PN
