Alliance for Work, Justice and Education

The Alliance for Work, Justice and Education (in Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

: Alianza para el Trabajo, la Justicia y la Educación) was a party coalition in Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

around the turn of the third millennium. It was born of the alliance of the Radical Civic Union

Radical Civic Union

The Radical Civic Union is a political party in Argentina. The party's positions on issues range from liberal to social democratic. The UCR is a member of the Socialist International. Founded in 1891 by radical liberals, it is the oldest political party active in Argentina...

(UCR), the Front for a Country in Solidarity

Front for a Country in Solidarity

The Front for a Country in Solidarity was a political party in Argentina. It was formed in 1994 out of the Great Front , which had been founded mainly by progressive members of the Peronist Justicialist Party who denounced the policies and the alleged corruption of the Carlos Menem administration;...

(FrePaSo), and a number of smaller provincial

Provinces of Argentina

Argentina is subdivided into twenty-three provinces and one autonomous city...

parties, in 1997.

The Alliance presented itself as a progressive, moderate center-left alternative to the neoliberal

Neoliberalism

Neoliberalism is a market-driven approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that emphasizes the efficiency of private enterprise, liberalized trade and relatively open markets, and therefore seeks to maximize the role of the private sector in determining the...

government of Carlos Menem

Carlos Menem

Carlos Saúl Menem is an Argentine politician who was President of Argentina from 1989 to 1999. He is currently an Argentine National Senator for La Rioja Province.-Early life:...

, with a mandate to end corruption and unemployment. It first took part in the 1997 legislative elections

Argentine legislative election, 1997

Argentina held national parliamentary elections on 26 October 1997 and the results were as follows:-Background:President Carlos Menem, who successfully campaigned to have the Argentine Constitution amended in 1994 largely for the sake of being eligible for a second term in office, won the 1995...

. In the 1999 elections it took Fernando de la Rúa

Fernando de la Rúa

Fernando de la Rúa is an Argentine politician. He was president of the country from December 10, 1999 to December 21, 2001 for the Alliance for Work, Justice and Education ....

(UCR) to the presidency

President of Argentina

The President of the Argentine Nation , usually known as the President of Argentina, is the head of state of Argentina. Under the national Constitution, the President is also the chief executive of the federal government and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces.Through Argentine history, the...

, together with Carlos Álvarez

Carlos Álvarez (vice-president)

Carlos Alberto "Chacho" Álvarez is an Argentine politician; he was Vice-President of Argentina during part of President Fernando de la Rúa's mandate, and currently heads the Aladi Secretariat....

as his vice-president, defeating the Justicialist Party

Justicialist Party

The Justicialist Party , or PJ, is a Peronist political party in Argentina, and the largest component of the Peronist movement.The party was led by Néstor Kirchner, President of Argentina from 2003 to 2007, until his death on October 27, 2010. The current Argentine president, Cristina Fernández de...

.

However, De la Rúa soon revealed himself as unable or unwilling to tackle corruption and to revive the Argentine economy, which was in a recession

Recession

In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction, a general slowdown in economic activity. During recessions, many macroeconomic indicators vary in a similar way...

, with innovative measures. In 2000, amid a scandal caused by accusations of bribery involving UCR senators

Argentine Senate

The Argentine Senate is the upper house of the Argentine National Congress. It has 72 senators: three for each province and three for the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires...

and members of the cabinet, Álvarez resigned from the vice-presidency, gravely hurting the unity of the Alliance. The socio-economic situation worsened

Argentine economic crisis (1999-2002)

The Argentine economic crisis was a financial situation, tied to poilitical unrest, that affected Argentina's economy during the late 1990s and early 2000s...

, and De la Rúa was forced to resign by the December 2001 riots. The Alliance soon disintegrated, its members returning to their former parties or finding new ones.

See also