Abstract

GRANDINETTI, Juan Rafael. The Youth of an Old Party. Meanings of Youth and Intergenerational Relations within the Unión Cívica Radical Party. Temas debates (En línea) [online]. 2023, n.46, pp.47-70. ISSN 1853-984X.

This article studies the meanings and party uses of the youth as a political category in the Unión Cívica Radical from the City of Buenos Aires. First, it addresses youth as a principle for political and moral legitimization. It shows that youth activists of this traditional party present themselves as the ones in charge of watching over the programmatic and identity consistency of the party, as heirs of its ‘historical values’. Thus, these activists cultivate the image of a ‘critical’ and ‘rebellious’ youth, capable of raising its voice before the party's leadership. Secondly, the article addresses youth in its organizational dimension, as a principle on the basis of which political work and power are distributed among generations. In this regard, it shows that local party structure and its internal competition dynamics set strong constraints when translating the political and moral attributes of youth into actual political practices. The findings are based on fieldwork conducted between 2017 and 2018 using qualitative research methods such as in-depth interviews, direct observations in party events, and documents and web pages content analysis.

Keywords : youth; activism; political parties; Argentine radicalismo.

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