Internas abiertas reguladas y buen funcionamiento partidario. Los casos actuales de Argentina y Uruguay

Abstract

This paper evaluates the effects of the open primary elections system at Argentina and Uruguay as a key element during the last Latinamerican political reforms. The presumed benefits of this practice are considered -improving internal party life and ordering the party system, evaluating its functioning in all the elections since its incorporation and comparing the results to ascertain the evolution of its implementation. We note that these benefits have not been obtained so far, particularly in Argentina, where the incorporation of this mechanism was based on contradictory principles with antagonistic points of view about political parties which only hinders a rightful appraisal of them. All this rises the establishment of a kind of competition that is not party-ruled, personalized or divided into sectors, which ends up promoting fragmentation, internal inconsistencies and loss of relevance of the political parties, both in terms of their internal structure as well as their position and behaviour within the general overview of democratic institutions.