CFK, The Most Democratic President Since Alfonsín?

Cristina Fernández has been vilified by many people for many reasons. She’s the least popular president since Fernando de la Rua fled the Casa Rosada in a helicopter in 2001. She seems to aid her detractors by constantly clashing with those who disagree with her, labeling them not just as wrong or wrongheaded but as undemocratic “coupmongers.” She seems to favor confrontation over consensus, and it is hard to find political analysts who say she leads by the power of her ideas. Her persuasive power has always come from the power of her purse, so to speak. In this sense, her administration is little different from that of her predecessor and husband, the always combative Néstor Kirchner.

Meanwhile, as president, Fernández’s record in Congress is one less characterized by dialog and debate than by the imposition and passage of bills in unplanned rapid-fire sessions. A case in point was the decision to nationalize the country’s 14-year-old pension fund system. The system, which took years to build, was destroyed, for good or bad, almost overnight, with exceptionally scarce debate about the long-term consequences of doing so. To outside observers, the breakneck speed with which Congress eliminated millions of peoples’ private pensions was stunning, so stunning that it led fearful investors to withdraw billions of dollars from the Argentine financial system.

Given all of this, it may seem surprising to learn that Fernández, by at least one measure, also seems to be the most democratic president since Raúl Alfonsín, who honorably guided Argentina back to democracy in 1983. How so?

Modern Argentine presidents often have appealed to a parliamentary mechanism called, literally, the Decree of Urgency and Necessity, or DNU. DNUs are “urgently necessary” decrees used by presidents to bypass Congress. If presidents want to pass legislation that Congress would block, they simply circumvent the bothersome beast by signing a DNU. The practice has been criticized by constitutional scholars and congressional advocates who say the decrees are an unreasonable usurpation of constitutional power. But this has never stopped presidents from signing them.

Since the return of democracy, presidents have signed 1,061 DNUs, according to a new study by the Centro de Estudios Nueva Mayoría. That’s a whopper of a number compared with the 25 that were signed in the 130-year span between 1853 and 1983. The use of DNUs skyrocketed by 4,140% in the 26 years since the return to democracy. That doesn’t seem to bode well for those pining for a more active Congress.

Ironically, perhaps, it is Fernández, who, despite being arguably the most divisive president in the past 26 years, has been the second-most-willing to submit legislation to Congress. In her first 15 months in power, Fernández has signed just five DNUs. That amounts to 0.3 DNUs pre month, compared with 9.3 for Eduardo Duhalde (the worst “per-month” offender, but also the one who faced the greatest crises), five for Néstor, three for De la Rua, four for Menem and 0.1 for Alfonsín.

Fernández said last week she would soon sign her fifth DNU. It entails a plan to share soybean tax revenue with provinces and municipal governments. Critics say the move is a last-minute Machiavellian ploy to buy votes and political support ahead of the June congressional election. Whatever the reason, the last time Fernández tried to alter soybean taxes, Congress rejected her plan by just one vote, that of Vice President Julio Cobos, whom the Kirchners have labeled a traitor.

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