Regional challenges in the face of the globalization of territories: Mendoza society in the 90's SpanishEnglish

By the 1980s, the domestic market had already lost its role as the engine of the so-called "regional economies" and the recurring crises of the Mendoza wine economy had become structural. This influenced the fact that the economic restructuring began in Mendoza, some time before the changes that would occur at the national level. While the first post-dictatorship provincial government had emphasized the institutionalization of the democratic values recently recovered by Argentines, the second period of government that began in 1987 focused on a project designed to "end once and for all the crises of the provincial economy." The strength and acceptance achieved by this government plan came, in part, from an electoral platform elaborated through a participatory process that articulated politicians and technicians. The Mendoza Peronism of those years appeared as a generation of "young people" (in their quarantine) motivated by a political will to transform reality. They were joined by numerous teams and technical cadres trained and willing to implement these proposals. The business world also supported the economic proposal of this management, despite its Peronist affiliation. Setting goals of deregulation, economic openness and export orientation, the political discourse as well as the spirit of important sectors of Mendoza society showed a certain optimism about the opportunities that would open up with change. On a deeper level, this was based on a trust - historically built by Mendoza society - in local capacities to find "a new place in the world". Thus, from 1987, the province of Mendoza mobilized strongly around a project that, under the banners of autonomy and the vindication of the values of federalism, would "raise Mendoza from the sad fate of a country in crisis." The long...