I've only lived in Argentina for six months, so I may be totally wrong in my opinion. But this is my blog so I'll write as I see it. If you disagree with any (or all of it), feel free to leave a comment letting me know where I missed it.
My impression of Argentina is that the populace owns every bit of the failure as a nation. Argentina produces great individuals, but as a group, well, they tend to do the wrong things for the right reasons... every single time.
Once upon a time, the country had a political class that had a vision of what this country could be. Despite having different visions, they shard the passion and determination to stand behind their ideas for the common good. Rosas, Lavalle, Sarmeinto -- just to name a few -- were the visionaries that could see the path to better things.
Somewhere along the way, Argentines accepted the interruption of the democratic rule and Peronism was birthed. Under Peronism, the complete democratic system was subverted.
Your network of contacts became more important that skills and talents. Who you knew became more potent than what you could do; it became more important to accommodate the power elitists than to stand for what was just.
Once this "new" order was in place, any attempt to question it or push for a return to democratic values was promptly, swiftly and chillingly silenced.
Thirty-thousand Argentines were killed and with it all possibility to recreate a democracy was destroyed.
Today, President Cristina de Fernandez-Kirchner leads a political class that doesn't have the values and lacks the courage to do what is needed and what is right.
Without a new vision for what Argentina can be, the current government doesn't have the cojones to do what is needed because it will only hurt their special interests and puppets.
And the people of Argentina are the ones to hold responsible for that because they voted the political class into power.