Naked People and Public Mobilized by Power Vacancy of the Ombudsman: some Transformations in Democracy and Public Opinion in Argentina

Abstract

This article describes the background and regulations of the Ombudsman of Argentine, a national human rights institution since 1994. Likewise, it reflects on the reasons why the position has been vacant since 2009, taking into account recent transformations in Argentina´s democracy. Thus, without classifying the government or the regime as populist, it proposes that Argentine democracy shows some of central characteristics of contemporary populism: permanent mobilization of public opinion, direct representation of the people under a populist leadership, non-accountability of power, among others. This is within the framework of the sanction of a large number of regulations expanding rights and the creation of new institutional spaces. Given that one of those institutional spaces, created in 2009, is the Public Defender's Office, the text warns about different ways of conceiving the people. The perspective associated with the Ombudsman would be the conception of the people as a diversity of citizens, while that of the Public Defender´s Office would be the conception of the people as a uniform public under populist leaderships. Finally, it concludes that the people are naked from both conceptions.