Sport Under Siege: Citizen's Right or Neoliberal Global Business? Sports Policies at the Neoliberal Crossroads

Abstract

This article analyzes the transformations of sport within the framework of neoliberal rationality and examines its effects on public sports policies in contemporary Argentina. Drawing on the work of Foucault, Laclau, Brown, Han, and Zemelman, it argues that neoliberalism operates not only as an economic model but also as a civilizational project that reconfigures subjectivities, redefines the relationship between the state, the market, and citizenship, and erodes the democratic dimension of the commons. In this context, sport emerges as a privileged terrain for observing hegemonic tensions: it can be affirmed as a social right oriented toward collective well-being or be subsumed under market logics that prioritize efficiency, performance, and competitiveness. This work examines how these disputes have permeated sports policies at different stages of recent Argentine history—from the civic-military dictatorships and the neoliberal shift of the 1990s to the current reconfigurations under libertarian-oriented governments—and argues that the current crossroads compels a rethinking of the role of the state, the democratization of bodily practices, and the possibility of building more egalitarian alternatives. It concludes that sport is now a strategic arena for contesting meanings of citizenship, social justice, and models of society, and that its future will depend on whether rights-based or market-oriented projects prevail.