Mistrust and rift: the new Argentina “World Cup” that the government prefers to ignore

Argentina has three football World Cups, but also Messi, Maradona, Pope Francis and five Nobel laureates. And as if that wasn’t enough, Argentina has the world’s widest thoroughfare and longest pedestrian walkway: country of record

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but Argentina is world famous for competition Premier League it is unfortunate There are many “famous” data in the world and very few encouraging ones that can hardly make any citizen proud: the inflation longest chronicle in the world (21 years non-stop), the Its GDP decline per capita at levels never before a quarter of a century ago (something practically unseen since World War II) and, without a doubt, it is the country that has won the world championships the last two years. The most pessimistic opinion.

It’s not enough to go out singing “muchchos…”

But now a new survey has been published that gives Argentina Two new negative “records” around the world that are very relevant for the development prospects of the countries’ economies: The distrust in its institutions and its government, and the level of polarization of its society and its politics.

For more than two decades, the Confidence Barometer, created by public relations and communications consultants Edelman for the influential World Economic Forum, has been presented annually. The most powerful global businessmen and many political leaders have met for more than half a century in the first days of January at the exclusive ski resort of Davos in the Swiss Alps.

And for 23 years, leaders going to the Davos Economic Forum have been eagerly awaiting the “Trust Barometer” from the American consultancy that has become a kind of bible for global business to understand what lies ahead. What a world to navigate. the year begins. It is not a good piece of information to attract investment to lead the negative tables of this study that top businessmen globally receive for the first time in the Swiss Alps.

trust barometer measure and Compares public opinion in 18 countriesAmong which – almost miraculously – is Argentina, today an economically insignificant nation in the global context.

Edelman’s study has been a privileged witness to the gradual collapse of the social mood and the unstoppable rise in mistrust that plagues the country and keeps it at the bottom of the tables almost every year. But the novelty is that now we are crowned “Champion” of the world in crackdown and disbelief.

society trusts them institutions, their leaders and their own citizens This is no trivial fact or academic curiosity: The barometer proves year after year that societies with the highest levels of trust tend to be more prosperous.

Argentina broke records this year: the most so far »Crackedworld index The polarization of its society and its leadership. In this indicator, Argentina wins not from penalties, as against France in Qatar, but by a landslide: Argentina is alone at the top of the table. It takes in two axes of polarization: the degree of division and the level of roots in the political culture.

It does not attract attention, if one takes into account that the cracks go back to unites and unions and are always reinforced with new “river-boca”, such as the Peronists and the guerrillas, the Kirchnerists and the neoliberals and here Even the Billardistas and Menotistas.

Countries such as Colombia, the United States, South Africa, Brazil and Spain, which have been loud in the media around the world because of their crackdowns, lag far behind Argentina.

polarizing ranking takes as the main criterion mistrust in government, the lack of a shared identity of their society, and the level of systemic injustice. they add economic pessimism And fear of society: All of these parameters are very poor in Argentina and pose a major challenge to the government emerging from the presidential election this year.

Argentina has a sad second world record in the Edelman Index mistrust in government, which only reaches 20 percent reliability. A curious and striking fact for Argentina: When the barometer compares trust or distrust in each country’s government, Argentina also wins the “championship” of the gap between the level of trust in government and companies.

Argentina more than double that with 32 points the degree of their trust in the companies, Compared to Govt.

with 52 digits, The level of trust of Argentines in their home country’s companies It’s not remarkably high, but it’s much better than defaming the government.

For comparison, the level of trust in companies in countries such as Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom or Canada is not much different from that in Argentina: Americans do not trust their companies much more than Argentines. But when it comes to comparing trust in government, only Nigeria and South Africa come close to Argentina’s negative record.

This is a very curious fact: for example, the government can afford to blame companies for inflation, as it has been doing with programs. cost of care hey RighteousAnd companies prefer to remain silent and bow their heads before directly intervening in political and economic debates.

a survey of consultants and Communication manager of own companies A survey conducted by Imagen magazine after the publication of the Edelman Barometer showed that more than 90 percent of the 80 executives on that panel believe that business Ruining his relatively high level of trust compared to defamation of the government to establish his point of view in political and economic debates in Argentina.

95 percent of business communicators themselves believe their companies are conspicuously absent from this debate. Will Employers Listen to Their Own Communications Managers?

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It may be an encouraging sign that, weeks ago, half a thousand business leaders and executives signed a joint letter to the government rejecting the impeachment effort against the Supreme Court because the president didn’t like the decision. compels them to make a partial refund. co-partnership which he handed over to the city of Buenos Aires to give it to the governor of Buenos Aires, Axel Kisilof.

It was almost a “revolutionary” event for a business community that for decades had chosen to remain silent and keep a low profile in public debate.

Yes today Public opinion is returning from its painful pilgrimage to statism which is why inflation is unstoppable And the shameful increase in poverty, not precisely due to the fact that businessmen have intervened in the debate to explain why in all rich countries the protagonists of the economy are companies and not governments: Argentina has hit it off on its own and bangs. They felt that the “current state” which was supposed to replace the market economy with public companies and state bureaucracies was an illusion that did not last well.

It takes a minute to imagine that the Argentine people could have been saved from suffering, poverty, emigration and bad blood if businessmen had come out to debate from the very first moment. Perhaps today many of the business leaders who took their companies to Uruguay and other destinations would remain in Argentina.