The article explores the effects of populist polarization in creating strong and long-lasting institutions based on the rule of law. It focuses on politics and not on the political economy of populism or of natural resource extraction. The first section briefly explains how we understand the contested notions of populism and the rule of law. The second focuses on the paradigmatic case of Juan Perón’s first two administrations (1946-1956) to explore the ambiguous legacies of populist inclusion for the creation of long-lasting democratic institutions.