Popular protest and clientelar nets in Argentina: federal distribution of "plan trabajar" [emergency employment program] (1996-2001)

this paper presents a statistical analysis of the determinants that ruled the federal allocation of the argentinean plan trabajar for the period 1996-2001. the overall results indicate that this emergency employment program was created as a mechanism to deal with increasing unemployment. however, the federal distribution of resources was later associated to the frequency of popular protest and the parallel evolution of the so-called "picket movement". the political variables included in the model suggest that the peronist party succeeded in making a better political use of federal allocation of funds than did the unión cívica radical/alianza.