"Boring" Argentine Election

The news about the Argentine presidential election is naturally focused on the surprising surge by Mauricio Macri, which shows more disenchantment with the Kirchner era than expected.

What gets less attention is what hasn't happened. There has been no inflammatory rhetoric from the Casa Rosada (though Cristina Kirchner hasn't tweeted since yesterday so let's see). Daniel Scioli's response has been measured, there is no crisis, there are no accusations of malfeasance, nobody is being thrown into jail. The outcome was a big deal but the process was...boring.

And that's what you want to see.

Increasingly, Venezuela is become more isolated in this regard. We've seen major yet boring elections elsewhere as well (I made the same point about the 2013 presidential election in Ecuador). For all the talk about the problems Argentina faces, it is important to note that the electoral aspect of its democracy seems to be working quite well.

For general posts on the election, see Otto and Steven Hyland.