Politics of the Demos vs. Politics of Politicians: Lessons from Argentina Emilia Castorina The aim of this paper is to explore the extent to which the conceptual/theoretical displacement of state and class-based politics by identity politics and diversity, as conceived in “development studies” today, has severed rather than enforced the understanding of new forms of resistance in the Third World. This paper will take particular issue with the Argentinean case. Not only Argentina represents a paradigmatic case of neo-liberal policies during the 1990s, but also -as its dialectical reverse- there emerged new social and political actors and forms of struggle. The key problem for understanding and conceptualizing the novelty of this new politics from “below” that has emerged in Argentina in the midst of the crisis of neo-liberalism -in the form of unemployed movement (“piqueteros”), social outbreaks (“puebladas”), neighbor assemblies, movements of taken factories, etc.- is the inadequacy of available theoretical frameworks. Indeed, neither the post-modern/postdevelopment/ post-colonial nor the traditional class/state-based perspectives seem to be able to account by themselves for the specificities and particularities of this new phenomenon. Yet, this paper aims at exploring the extent to which this epistemological lack entails serious political limitations. The point in case –the new politics from “below” in Argentina- may illustrate the (des)empowering effects neglecting and/or underestimating the role of the state has on the theory and practice of popular struggles when fundamental re-distributive aspects of capitalism are at stake.