Political and Judicial Reform Efforts Underway in Argentina and Chile

Governmental bodies in Argentina and Chile are pursuing various structural reforms to modernize their political and judicial systems. In Argentina, the administration of Javier Milei is seeking to modify electoral rules, including a proposal to derogate the Primary Open Simultaneous and Mandatory elections known as PASO. The proposed Argentine reform also includes stricter requirements for political parties to maintain legal status, such as increasing the number of districts required for national recognition to ten and raising the membership threshold to 0.5 percent of the electoral roll. Additionally, there are calls for a clean slate law to prevent individuals convicted of crimes against public administration from running for office.

In Chile, the Ministry of Justice is prioritizing the Civil Procedural Reform to create a more agile and accessible justice system. Proponents of this effort argue that the reform should extend to Local Police Courts to reduce disparities between communes and improve technological resources. Simultaneously, a mixed commission and a technical table are working to address political fragmentation by exploring ways to reduce the number of parliamentarians and strengthen party discipline to avoid the legislative paralysis caused by having too many parties in Congress.