The Argentine judicial system is divided into federal and provincial courts. The nine federal Supreme Court judges are appointed by the president with approval of the Senate. Lower federal court judges are nominated by a Council of Magistrates and chosen by the president. Reforms begun in the 1990s addressed long-standing problems of inefficiency, corruption, and unfilled vacancies. There are federal courts of appeal in Buenos Aires and other large cities. The provincial justice system includes supreme courts, appellate courts, courts of first instance, and justices of the peace.

The judiciary has been criticized as inefficient and open to political influence, despite recent reforms. Among the persistent problems cited are arbitrary arrests, lengthy pretrial detentions, and harsh prison conditions. However, cases involving human rights abuses have received increasing attention since the 1980s. The government has designated a prisons ombudsman since 1993 to monitor conditions and recommend prison reforms.

The national prison system is directed by the Ministry of Justice. There are also separate provincial prisons. The number of prisoners in Argentina increased greatly in the 1990s, from roughly 21,000 to nearly 40,000, or to as many as 58,000 by some estimates. The rate of incarceration also increased rapidly. Pretrial detainees account for more than half of the prison population.

Political process

The political party system in Argentina has been volatile, particularly since the mid-20th century, with numerous parties forming, taking part in elections, and disbanding as new factions evolve. Among the major parties are the Radical Civic Union (Unión Cívica Radical; UCR), a centrist party with moderate leftist leanings; the Justicialist Party (Partido Justicialista; PJ), more commonly known as the Peronist party (for its founder, former president Juan Perón), traditionally nationalist and pro-labour but supportive of neoliberal economic policies during the 1990s (it split into two factions before the 2005 elections: the Front for Victory [Frente para la Victoria; FPV] and the Federal Peronists); the Front for a Country in Solidarity (Frente del País Solidario; Frepaso), a moderate leftist grouping of dissident Peronists; and the Union of the Democratic Centre (Unión del Centro Democrático; UCD, or UCéDé), a traditional liberal party. The PJ has controlled the government most of the time since civilian rule was restored in the early 1980s, notably under President Carlos Menem in the 1990s. Frepaso was founded in 1994 from the left-wing Broad Front, the Christian Democratic Party, and other groups; three years later it formed an alliance with the UCR and in 1999–2001 held the government.

The national electoral code provides that 30 percent of candidates proposed by political parties for elected office must be women. About one-fourth of the members of the Chamber of Deputies are women, but the Senate remains overwhelmingly male. Voting is compulsory for citizens aged 18 to 70. Beginning in 2013 those aged 16 and 17 were granted the option of voting.

Women’s rights have been established through a series of legislative acts guaranteeing the right to vote, to work and to receive equal pay for equal work, and to stand on equal footing in a marriage, including in the authority over children. In 1985 the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women was ratified, and in 1991 the Coordinating Council for Public Policies on Women was established to ensure its fulfillment. Departments of women’s affairs operate within many federal and local agencies and in such institutions as labour unions.

Security

The military has traditionally been a factor in Argentina’s political life, and the country has experienced several periods of military rule, including 1976–83. Since then, however, annual military spending has fallen to only a tiny fraction of GDP. Of the roughly 70,000 active military personnel in the army, navy, and air force, some three-fifths of the total are in the army. The Coast Guard provides security and rescue services, and there is also an 18,000-member paramilitary Gendarmería Nacional under the direction of the Ministry of the Interior, deployable for both national and international security functions. Argentina has sent troops to UN missions in Cyprus, Iraq and Kuwait, and Serbia and Montenegro (Yugoslavia) and has provided observers in a number of other locations as well. Argentina also has a federal police force that is controlled by the president through the minister of the interior.

Health and welfare

An extensive system of hospitals and clinics in Argentina is run by national, provincial, and local authorities as well as by private organizations. The cost of medical care is covered by a comprehensive array of occupational insurance plans. Public health and sanitation standards are particularly high in developed places but can drop off considerably in some of the undeveloped areas. Diseases such as smallpox, cholera, yellow fever, and tuberculosis have been brought under control or eliminated. Average life expectancy at birth exceeds 75 years, higher than that in many South American countries.

Argentina’s social welfare services were developed on a large scale during the first presidency (1946–55) of Juan Perón. A social security system was set up to provide extensive benefits for all workers. Housing, however, has become a problem in cities because of the movement of workers from rural areas, especially during periods of economic difficulty. These workers have congregated on the outskirts of urban zones—and more recently on vacant land in the inner cities—and assembled dwellings from corrugated iron and scraps of wood, cardboard, and other scavenged materials. The resulting shantytown communities, called villas miserias, lack amenities such as public utilities and paved roads.