The constitution provides for a president to be elected for a four-year term, with the option of reelection for one additional term. Presidential candidates must win either 45 percent of the vote or 40 percent with a 10-point advantage over the second-place candidate to avoid a runoff.

The 2023 presidential election was deemed free and fair by domestic and international observers. Right-wing libertarian Javier Milei was elected in the second round of elections in November, defeating Peronist candidate Sergio Massa with roughly 56 percent of the vote, and was inaugurated in December.

The National Congress consists of a lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, and an upper house, the Senate. The Chamber of Deputies has 257 members elected for four-year terms, and the Senate has 72 members elected for six-year terms. Half of all deputies and a third of senators are up for election every two years through a proportional-representation system with closed party lists. Legislative contests are generally deemed free and fair.

In 2024, the Peronist Union for the Homeland (UxP) coalition held 99 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 33 in the Senate. Milei’s Freedom Advances party had 39 deputies and 6 senators, while the Republican Proposal (PRO) party held 38 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 7 in the Senate.

Argentina has a clear and relatively fair framework for conducting elections. There is universal suffrage: voting is compulsory for people between 18 and 70 years old, and voluntary for people between 16 and 18 or older than 70.

However, the system suffers from shortcomings, including inconsistent enforcement of electoral laws and campaign finance regulations. Aspects of election management fall under the purview of the executive branch; the National Electoral Chamber (CNE) works in conjunction with the National Electoral Directorate (DNE), a department of the Interior Ministry.

In October 2024, Congress passed a widely debated electoral reform law introducing a single paper ballot for national elections. The changes seek to eliminate the opportunities for abuse and mismanagement present under the previous system, in which parties printed and distributed their own individual ballots.

Argentina has competitive political parties that operate without undue obstacles. Primary elections are mandatory for presidential and legislative elections, and only party candidates that obtain 1.5 percent of the national vote in primary elections can contest general elections. Of the 27 candidates who participated in the 2023 presidential primaries, 5 progressed to the general elections.

Argentina’s multiparty system affords opposition candidates a realistic opportunity to compete for political power. Opposition parties command significant popular support and have a large presence in Congress.

President Milei’s 2023 presidential victory occurred only two years after he entered politics and without the support of a national party structure: his Freedom Advances party has relatively few seats in Congress and no provincial governors or mayors. Milei’s win marked the third consecutive presidential election in which the incumbent political party was defeated.

Argentinians’ political choices are generally free from domination by democratically unaccountable groups. However, political choices are influenced by voter intimidation and clientelism, particularly in poorer regions.

A failed assassination attempt against then–Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in 2022 drew widespread condemnation. At the end of 2024, the trial of three suspects charged in the attack was underway.

All segments of the population have full political rights but, in practice, poorer Argentinians, ethnic minorities, and Indigenous people have limited access to political power. Legislative party lists are legally required to reflect full gender parity. Following the 2023 elections, women held just over 40 percent of seats in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. There are no women among Argentina’s 24 provincial governors.

LGBT+ people are well-represented in Argentina and legal protections for LGBT+ people are robust.

Elected officials are duly installed without interference. The political system is characterized by the concentration of power in the executive, with the president having authority to implement some policies by decree. Provincial governors are also powerful and tend to influence national lawmakers representing their provinces.

In December 2023, President Milei signed an executive decree with over 300 provisions that modify or revoke several laws, parts of which were challenged in court. A broad reform bill passed by Congress in June 2024 grants the president the power to legislate on administrative, economic, financial, and energy-related issues for a year. Since Congress did not approve a budget for 2024, the government was able to extend the 2023 budget and reallocate funds by decree.

A weak institutional framework hampers anticorruption efforts. The main anticorruption body is part of the executive, legislative oversight is scarce, and the judiciary is widely considered to be politicized and ineffectual. Many politicians hold immunity in connection with their elected posts. Corruption cases, including proceedings against former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and prominent businessmen over public works-related corruption, are marred by delays, prolonged appeals, and frequent dismissals.

An agency to guarantee access to public information was created by law in 2016 but is not independent of the presidency. Adherence to and enforcement of public-asset disclosure regulations is inconsistent. The Constitution requires the head of the cabinet to appear before Congress monthly to report on the government’s progress, but this rarely happens in practice.

In August 2024, Milei issued a decree narrowing the scope of the 2016 access to information law, blocking access to official deliberations, documents, and private information of public officials. These changes were widely condemned by civil society and journalists.

Argentina has a robust and lively media environment. The law guarantees freedom of expression and bans official censorship. Media ownership is concentrated among large conglomerates that frequently favor a political grouping, and state advertising allocation tends to favor government-friendly media groups. While state-owned media outlets generally align with the incumbent government, Milei has dismantled the state-owned news agency and pledged to privatize other state media outlets.

Journalists face occasional harassment and violence, especially when covering corruption and drug-related crimes. Some have faced charges for their investigative work. The Argentine Journalism Forum (FOPEA), a press freedom watchdog, recorded 110 attacks against journalists in Argentina between January to October 2024. Verbal attacks by President Milei on specific journalists accounted for nearly a third of these cases.

Freedom of religion is constitutionally guaranteed and enforced in practice. The population is largely Roman Catholic but public education is secular, and religious minorities express their faiths freely.

Academic freedom is guaranteed by law and largely observed in practice. Amid widespread public sector spending cuts, the government reduced the 2024 budget for national universities by approximately 30 percent compared to the previous year, prompting massive demonstrations. Congress voted to increase funding for universities, but the president vetoed the measure. President Milei and other government officials have accused national universities of corruption and of indoctrinating students with left-wing ideology.

Score Change: The score declined from 4 to 3 because the right-wing government imposed drastic funding cuts on public universities, accusing them of corruption and leftist indoctrination.

Private discussion is vibrant and largely unrestricted. However, government agencies have been known to monitor social media activity, and intelligence services have been accused of illegally surveilling journalists, politicians, and civil society groups. Social media discussions have been marred by harassment and attacks from accounts aligned with the Milei government, and some of these accounts’ managers now hold government positions.

Freedom of assembly is generally respected, and citizens frequently organize protests. President Milei introduced new guidelines to control street demonstrations in December 2023, including measures that rights groups warn may discourage or even criminalize protest actions. In 2024, there were several nationwide demonstrations against Milei’s economic reforms. While most were peaceful, some saw violent clashes between protesters and police. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights warned Argentina about excessive use of force by security forces during a June protest outside the National Congress.

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) generally operate without restrictions. Civic organizations, especially those focused on human rights and abuses committed under the 1976–83 dictatorship, play a major role in society, although some fall victim to corruption.

Union influence remains significant, although it has decreased in recent years. Organized labor is dominated by Peronists, and most labor unions have been controlled by the same individuals or groups for decades. Internal opposition to union leadership has been limited by fraud and intimidation.

The Supreme Court is relatively independent and has resisted executive overreach. However, lower and province-level courts have close ties with political actors and engage in corrupt practices. Peronist leaders have frequently attacked judicial rulings and accused the courts of ideological bias. In 2023, UxP lawmakers approved impeachment proceedings against all Supreme Court justices in committee, though the motion ultimately lapsed at the end of 2024.

Numerous vacancies and interim appointments hinder the autonomy of the judiciary. For instance, two seats on the five-member Supreme Court were vacant at the end of 2024, the role of national ombudsperson had been unfilled for 15 years, and the position of chief prosecutor had been filled on a temporary basis since 2017.

In March 2024, President Milei nominated two candidates for the Supreme Court, one of whom is a federal judge facing corruption allegations, according to Human Rights Watch. Both nominees seem likely to support the government’s agenda. At the end of 2024, the Senate had yet to vote on the nominations, which, if approved, would create an all-male court for the first time since 2004.

The right to due process is constitutionally protected and generally upheld. However, security officers and some judges are suspected of maintaining criminal ties. Prisons are overcrowded and inmates live in unsuitable conditions. As of June 2024, pretrial detainees represented 43.6 percent of the country’s prison population. More than 1,221 convictions for crimes committed during the 1976–83 dictatorship were attained between 2006 and September 2024.

Argentina’s homicide rate is low compared to other Latin American countries, and the homicide rate has declined over time, from 6.3 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2012 to 4.3 in 2022. However, violence from criminal groups and the security forces remains a serious issue. Police misconduct, torture, and brutality against detainees are endemic. Arbitrary arrests and abuses by police are rarely punished in the courts.

International criminal organizations use Argentina as an operational base and a transit route. Homicides in Rosario, Argentina’s third largest city and a hotspot for drug-related violence, dropped by approximately 65 percent in 2024 compared to the previous year. Authorities allege the improvement is related to harsher policies, the dispatch of federal security forces to the city, and stricter control over gang members in prison.

In recent years, there have been violent clashes between security forces and Indigenous Mapuche activists in Argentina’s Patagonia region, as well as repeated confrontations between local residents and activists. Some activists have used violence to seize and occupy land.

Score Change: The score improved from 2 to 3 due to a significant reduction in criminal violence, particularly in the city of Rosario, a center of drug-related activity in the country.

Argentina has robust antidiscrimination laws, but enforcement is uneven. Indigenous peoples, approximately 2.4 percent of the population, face government neglect and disproportionate levels of poverty. Race-based discrimination is relatively common. Women enjoy legal equality but face economic discrimination and gender-based wage gaps.

Argentina’s LGBT+ population enjoys full legal rights, including marriage, adoption, and the right to serve in the military. However, LGBT+ people do face some degree of societal discrimination, and occasionally, serious violence. Although 1 percent of public sector jobs are legally reserved for transgender and nonbinary individuals, over 100 have been dismissed under Milei’s administration.

Several top officials, including the president, have voiced opposition to “gender ideology,” and the government has banned the use of gender-inclusive language in public administration. President Milei has dissolved the Ministry of Women, Genders, and Diversity (MMGD) and the National Institute Against Discrimination, Racism, and Xenophobia (INADI). Agencies responsible for monitoring and combatting gender violence have either been dismantled or had their funding sharply reduced.

The government generally respects citizens’ constitutional right to travel both inside and outside of Argentina. People are free to change their place of education or employment.

Citizens generally enjoy the right to own property and establish private businesses. Economic instability, cumbersome regulations, and corruption affect the private sector at all levels. In July 2024, President Milei created the Ministry of Deregulation and Transformation of the State, tasked with reducing regulatory burdens and excessive bureaucracy.

Approximately 70 percent of the country’s rural Indigenous communities lack titles to their lands, and forced evictions, while technically illegal, still occur. Indigenous communities continue to struggle to defend their land rights and reclaim traditional lands.

Argentinians enjoy broad freedom regarding marriage and divorce. Same-sex marriage and adoption by same-sex couples were legalized in 2010. A 2012 gender-identity law allows people to legally change their gender. Abortion was legalized up to the 14th week of pregnancy in 2020, a landmark decision in Latin America.

Gender-based violence remains a serious problem. The ombudsperson’s office reported 147 femicides in the first half of 2024, only slightly lower than the same period of 2023. In June 2024, the government dismantled the Undersecretary of Protection against Gender Violence, including drastic cuts to the budget and personnel of the national gender violence helpline and other programs. The government also shut down 81 legal assistance hubs located throughout the country.

Argentina faces high poverty rates aggravated by high inflation and economic instability. In the first half of 2024, the poverty rate reached 52.9 percent, up from approximately 40 percent in the same period of 2023, with 18.1 percent of people living in extreme poverty. Monthly inflation remained high, but stabilized after record levels in late 2023 and early 2024.

Forced labor is high in sectors such as garment and brick production, agriculture, and domestic work. At least half of the workforce is informally employed and lacks labor rights and legal protections. Sex trafficking is a serious concern, and efforts to combat it have been hindered by lack of government coordination and enforcement, corruption, and complicit officials, according to the US State Department’s 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report.