In this paper we propose to analyze the effects generated by the economic policies carried out during the Menem administration (1989-1999). In addition, we attempt to understand the popular support or disapproval towards the economic model erected during those years. Taking these two elements as points of departure we try to explain the expectations associated to the results in the presidential elections of 1999; the social explosion that occurred on December 19th and 20th 2001 and its importance as a symbol of political disarticulation; and finally the new political practices that emerged as a result of the exhaustion of more traditional ones. In relation to the latter we particularly focus on the “asambleas barriales” that began to multiply since January 2002 and the re-apprehension of the “political action” as a social experience.