UCEDE
This chapter examines the failure of the UCEDE in Argentina, and compares it to the success of the UDI in Chile. The first section discusses the long history of conservative party weakness in Argentina. The second section asks why no “Argentine UDI” emerged from the 1976–1983 military regime, arguing that its poor governing performance—including, notably, its defeat in the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas War—made the formation of such a party unviable. The third section examines the emergence of the UCEDE, emphasizing its much weaker starting position relative to the UDI. The fourth section discusses the fall of the UCEDE, which suffered a series of schisms and a sharp drop in electoral support after newly elected President Carlos Menem (1989–1999), a Peronist, began to implement much of its economic program. While the proximate cause of the UCEDE’s collapse was the Menem government, the chapter argues that the deeper cause was the party’s various built-in weaknesses.