Decolonial Reflections: Pension Reform in Argentina during the government of Mauricio Macri 2015-2019

Abstract

This article develops an alternative proposal to the traditional analysis of public policies, rooted in the Latin American critical thinking. To do this, from a decolonial perspective, I examine the neoliberal pension reforms of the government of Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), reflecting on how the modernity/coloniality logic and the coloniality of knowledge are reproduced in them: a form of knowledge construction that makes possible to legitimize these reforms even when their implementation is not beneficial for the elderly. To do this, through a qualitative methodology based on documentary analysis, I identify the a priori and universal principles of human action raised by neoliberalism theorists. These principles are found in the ideas of “truly genuine work” and “work culture” that support and are at the base of the pension reforms.