This is a revised and updated edition of Snow's study of Argentine politics. The work is a description and analysis of the role played by Argentina's major political actors: the political parties, the armed forces, labour unions, the Catholic Church, and students. Their traditional roles are examined, but emphasis is placed on the part they have played since publication of the last edition in 1979, especially the dramatic transition to democracy beginning in 1983. Snow and his co-author, Manzetti, are slightly more optimistic than most analysts, and believe that Argentina's major political actors may have finally decided that authoritarian regimes are not to their, Argentina's, advantage. Written primarily as a supplementary text for courses in Latin American politics, this work should be of interest to scholars and students of contemporary Latin America.