scholarly journals Populism Revived:Donald Trump and the Latin American Leftist Populists

2018 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
pp. 733-753 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos de la Torre

The twenty-first century could well become known as the populist century. No longer confined to Latin America or to the margins of European politics, populism has spread to Africa, Asia, and, with Donald Trump's election, to the cradle of liberal democracy. Even though it is uncertain what impact Trump's populism will have on American democracy, it is worth learning from Latin America, where populists have been in power from the 1930s and 1940s to the present. Even as Latin American populists like Juan Perón and Hugo Chávez included the poor and the nonwhite in the political community, they moved toward authoritarianism by undermining democracy from within. Are the foundations of American democracy and the institutions of civil society strong enough to resist US president Donald Trump's right-wing populism?

Author(s):  
Gustavo Guzmán

Abstract The Chilean writer Miguel Serrano (1917–2009) is one of the most important figures of the contemporary right-wing counterculture, standing next to figures such as Julius Evola and Savitri Devi. Accordingly, in the last two decades his antisemitic books have been published in places as disparate as Idaho, Rome, Bogota, Melbourne, and London. Likewise, diverse musicians have paid tribute to him, revealing that his influence goes beyond conventional far-right circles. This paper shows the impact of Serrano’s antisemitism on the twenty-first-century countercultural rightists, emphasizing both the local aspects –Latin American, Chilean– of his “Esoteric Hitlerism” and the global dimension of such an impact. This study argues that Serrano was essentially a Chilean right-wing intellectual who, by means of a noteworthy narrative and an irreducible activism, created an antisemitic oeuvre able to attract from Latin America a heterogeneous set of actors. In other words, Serrano shaped a local antisemitic appeal whose effects can be traced on a global scale today. This challenges some notions on Latin America as a mere receptacle of foreign anti-Jewish trends.


2021 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-117
Author(s):  
Daniel G. Kressel

AbstractThe article examines the ideological character of Juan Carlos Onganía's dictatorship by exploring its ties and dialogue with Francisco Franco's Spain. Known as the “Argentine Revolution,” Onganía's regime (1966-70) was, the article shows, one of the first Cold War Latin American dictatorship to overtly use Francoist ideology as its point of reference. While building on the conventional wisdom that the legacies of the Spanish Civil War informed right-wing thought in Latin America, the study then shifts its focus to Spain's 1960s “economic miracle” and technocratic state model, observing them as a prominent discursive toolkit for authoritarian Argentine intellectuals. Drawing on newly discovered correspondence and archival sources, the article first excavates the intellectual networks operating between Franco's Spain and the Argentine right during the 1950s and 1960s. Once handpicked by Onganía to design his regime, these Argentine Franco-sympathizers were to decide the character of the Argentine Revolution. Second, the article sheds light on the intimate collaboration between the two dictatorships, and further explores the reasons for Onganía's downfall. In doing so, the study adds to a burgeoning historiographic field that underscores the significance of the Francoist dictatorship in the Latin American right-wing imaginary.


Author(s):  
O. V. Varentsova

Contemporary political regimes in Venezuela and Bolivia led by late Hugo Châvez (now by his successor Nicolas Maduro) and Evo Morales are considered by foreign and Russian scholars as part of the third wave of populism. In the 20th century Latin America already witnessed two waves of populism which coincided with significant political transitions, namely a transition from oligarchy to mass politics accompanied by implementation of import substitution industrialization policies, and a transition from authoritarian rule to democracy during the third wave of democratization which triggered neoliberal reforms inspired by Washington Consensus. This article presents common characteristics of Latin American populist regimes that emerged in different historical periods which help identify the origins as well as distinctive features of Venezuelan and Bolivian political regimes. It is stated that the Châvez and Morales left populist regimes resemble classic populist regimes in that they rely on incendiary anti-establishment discourse. Therefore, left populist regimes are characterized by high levels of polarization as well as weak institutionalization and class or indigenous orientation. Election of left populist leaders may lead to institutional deadlock, uneven playing field and transition to competitive authoritarianism.


Author(s):  
Marisa von Bülow

Latin American transnational social movements (TSMs) are key actors in debates about the future of global governance. Since the 1990s, they have played an important role in creating new organizational fora to bring together civil society actors from around the globe. In spite of this relevance, the literature on social movements from the region focuses primarily—and often exclusively—on the domestic arena. Nevertheless, there is an increasingly influential body of scholarship from the region, which has contributed to relevant theoretical debates on how actors overcome collective action problems in constructing transnational social movements and how they articulate mobilization efforts at the local, national and international scales. The use of new digital technologies has further blurred the distinction among scales of activism. It has become harder to tell where interpretative frames originate, to trace diffusion paths across national borders, and to determine the boundaries of movements. At the same time, there are important gaps in the literature, chief among them the study of right-wing transnational networks.


2020 ◽  
pp. 019145372091045
Author(s):  
Victor Kempf

This article explores the possibility of a notion of left-wing populism that is conceptually opposed to the identitarian logic of embodiment that characterises right-populist interpellations of ‘the people’. In the first part, I will demonstrate, that in Laclau’s constructivist approach, any populist embodiment of the people actually has a partial, subaltern and performative origin. On this basis, it becomes possible to distinguish between a radical-democratic version of the people that is self-reflexively aware of this origin and a regressive and reified one that ideologically betrays and negates its own subaltern tradition of democratic struggle by proclaiming to embody a positive, pre-established substance of ‘rooted’, ‘well-born’ community. In the second part of the article, I will focus on this self-negation as a starting point for an immanent critique of right-wing populism. Such an immanent critique is promising, because it could overcome the shortcomings of decisionism and moralism that limit the contemporary critique of right-wing populism. However, it remains still an open question how to defend and define a negativist truth of political community and subjectivation that is necessary for developing such a left-Hegelian critique of regressive and reified notions of ‘the people’.


1977 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Blanchard

The term ‘populism’ has been used to describe many of the popular movements that have appeared in Latin America in recent decades. It is an ‘imprecise term’, to use the words of Professor Skidmore, and the large number of definitions available, indicates how imprecise the term, in fact, has become. Definitions of a universal nature are of limited use, for populism seems to vary according to geographical region: the North American populist differs from the Russian populist, who differs from the African populist, who differs from the Latin American populist, and so on. Even when dealing with the specific area of Latin America there is no consistency. Writers disagree on whether Latin American populists are Left- or Right- Wing, anti- or pro-status quo, reformists or opportunists, rigid or flexible with regard to ideology.


2011 ◽  
Vol 91 (3) ◽  
pp. 503-527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Emanuelle Birn ◽  
Raúl Necochea López

Abstract This essay analyzes the current state of the field of history of health and medicine in Latin America and proposes questions and areas for further investigation. Using a variety of databases to identify relevant historiographical sources from across the Americas, the authors focus on a range of subjects that have substantially engaged contemporary historians while opening up still more research avenues. These include the health of diverse populations; new perspectives on religion and on women’s health; the historicizing of health systems, health politics, and social medicine; and the local-global nexus in Latin American health and medicine. These themes both draw from and extend beyond those addressed in pathbreaking works such as Nancy Leys Stepan’s Beginnings of Brazilian Science. Among the most stimulating developments of recent years are the incorporation of interdisciplinary perspectives on historical analysis, and the elucidation of regional patterns of and preoccupations with the interrelations among state, society, and medicine. The proliferation of historical knowledge regarding the health and medical landscape of Latin America has made this one of the most dynamic fields in historical scholarship today. The authors conclude by discussing emerging methodological and theoretical challenges, including Cold War studies and postcolonialism, and by reflecting on the shared scholarly and political responsibilities of Latin Americanists.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (3 - Sup2) ◽  
pp. 169-177
Author(s):  
Fabio Andrés Díaz Pabón

Unlike other Latin American countries, Colombia has consistently been governed by centre-right or right-wing political parties. The absence of political space for the Left in this country allowed governments to portray protests as subversive and criminal. However, starting in 2008, right-wing politicians have embraced, supported and used the protest as a tactic; undertaking, calling for, and giving support to various protest movements across the country. This has had an unexpected consequence: right-wing parties, government institutions, and even some sectors within the security and armed forces now see protests as valid and normal. Drawing on a brief historical analysis of protest movements in Colombia since 1948, and particularly after 2002, this article argues that to understand the recent normalization of this form of political expression we should look at changes in the dynamics of competition within the Right.


Author(s):  
Eugenia Tarzibachi

Abstract The introduction of commercialized disposable pads and tampons during the twentieth century changed the experience of the menstrual body in many (but not all) countries of the world. From a Latin-American perspective, this new way to menstruate was also understood to be a sign of modernization. In this chapter, Tarzibachi describes and analyzes how the dissemination and proliferation of disposable pads and tampons have unfolded first in the United States and later in Latin America, with a particular focus on Argentina. She pays particular attention to how the Femcare industry shaped the meanings of the menstrual body through discourses circulated in advertisements and educational materials. Tarzibachi explores how the contemporary meanings of menstruation are contested globally, as the traditional Femcare industry shifts its rhetoric in response to challenges from new menstrual management technologies, new forms of menstrual activism, and the increasing visibility of menstruation in mainstream culture.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-49
Author(s):  
Barry Cannon

Most analyses of Right-wing power strategies in Latin America highlight the relative paucity of dedicated Right-wing political parties, and the preponderance of non-electoral strategies. Despite this such studies continue to privilege the electoral over other strategies. This paper presents a more wide-ranging, comprehensive perspective based on political sociology and political psychology theories. Here strategies are categorised at three levels – electoral, extra-electoral and semi- or extra-constitutional - which can be activated in a multi-layered manner, depending on the level of threat perceived to Right objectives and on conditions on the ground. Using the case study of the removal of Dilma Rousseff from the presidency in Brazil in 2016, the article seeks to illustrate the ultimate aim of achieving a “smart coup”, whereby left governments are forced out of office with relatively little bloodshed and an element of popular and institutional legitimacy. In this way the Latin American Right aims to integrate electoral and non-electoral strategies to the democratic context of Left hegemony in the region.


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