Anthropology Departmental Lecture – Chainsaw Politics and Trust in the State

Abstract

For a long time, we have lived under the sign of transition, that is, the notion that after state repression, violent civil strife and mass human rights violations, the implementation of some measures of dealing with the past (couched in the general terms of the Transitional Justice toolkit) will lead to the founding of a trustworthy moral democratic State. In this talk, I want to explore the notion of trust as it exists in state-citizen relations in Argentina. Through a select few historical and more recent scenes and events,  examine the stance many middle-class Argentines hold that the state can be and at the same time cannot be trusted. This paradoxical position, while seemingly incorporating incompatible cognitive and affective dispositions, is key to understanding the imaginaries of the state in the long aftermath of the last civico-military dictatorship (1976-1983). The recent querying of the past through acts of dictatorship denialism and, since December 2023, an alt-right political campaign aimed at dismantling state institutions and political practices that contended with past crimes, raise the stakes even further. Together this historical trajectory highlights the relation between trust, the State and the surprising rise of the alt-right in Argentina.  

 
For further information contact Professor Nayanika Mookherjee (nayanika.mookherjee@durham.ac.uk)