The End of Economic Nationalism in Argentina? Weathering Privatization in the Nuclear Energy Sector.

This paper focuses on the historical development of the nuclear sector under a nationalist paradigm, and how it organized and confronted President Menem privatization policies. As I will show, while economic factors were important in hindering the nuclear privatization proposal, sectoral organization ?based on a class-cross coalition among professional, technical and administrative personnel- served as an early deterrent to the liberalization of the atomic program. The sector?s resistance was led by an epistemic community formed by nuclear professionals who shared similar ideas on how nuclear energy had to be developed. These principles of development, based on economic nationalism and developmentalism, were mainly threefold: i) the centrality of the state in the nuclear effort; ii) autonomy as the guiding principle of development; and iii) the centralization of all functions (research and development, energy generation, and regulation) in the National Commission of Atomic Energy (CNEA). This epistemic group withdrew all support to the government and vocally opposed the de-nationalization of the program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]