Populism

Latin American Perspectives

Ronaldo Munck, Mariana Mastrangelo, Pablo Pozzi, Ronaldo Munck, Mariana Mastrangelo, Pablo Pozzi

• Publisher: Agenda Publishing
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781788215985
• eBook ISBN: 9781788216005
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Latin American & Caribbean History
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Populism has become one of the most overused terms in political discourse today. It can embrace authoritarian and nativist right-wing politicians but also those on the left who appeal for popular support for transformation. In its dominant usage it is seen as inimical to the values of liberal democracy. Yet others see it as part of the construction of a people-centred project that can realize true democracy.

What is clear is that much of the debate around populism has been from the perspective of the global North and the voice of the South has been largely missing. This volume addresses this absence and provides a Latin American perspective to the global study of populism.

It argues that Latin America in its rich and early experience of populism is a valuable laboratory to further our understanding and to address the question of whether populism now goes beyond the dichotomy of left and right and is a new political phenomenon.

The book presents a series of case studies with cross-cutting overview chapters that highlight the lessons to be learned from new research. Each chapter is set within a tight conceptual framework in order to better understand contemporary Latin American politics "after the pink tide" and to enrich the international debate on populism from a Latin American perspective.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Information
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Abbreviations and acronyms
• Foreword by Jean Grugel
• Introduction
• 1 Populism in Latin America: development, democracy and social transformation
• 2 Peronism in Argentina: left or right?
• 3 The populist left in Chile: socialists and communists from 1936 to 1973
• 4 The left and the Workers’ Party in Brazil: a party between populism, social policies and the popular vote
• 5 Brazil, Bolsonaro and populism of the right
• 6 Political dilemmas of the government of López Obrador: between populism, democracy and the left in Mexico
• 7 The Bolivarian process in Venezuela: socialism, populism or neoliberalism?
• 8 Populist responses to crises of market democracy: the case of Bolivia’s Evo Morales
• 9 Ecuador: populism and the 2007–17 political cycle
• 10 The Nicaraguan crisis and the mirage of left populism
• Overviews
• 12 Populism and the left in Latin America
• Afterword: a tale of two “people”: national popular and twenty-first-century Latin American populisms
• Contributors
• Index