Populism in Latin America

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos de la Torre
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Political Landscapes ◽  
Privately Owned

Since the 1930s and 1940s until the present, populist leaders have dominated Latin America’s political landscapes. This chapter explains the commonalities and differences between the different subtypes of Latin American populism—classical, neoliberal, and radical. It examines why these different manifestations of populism emerged, and their democratizing and inclusionary promises while seeking power. Then it analyzes their impact on democracy after gaining office. Whereas populists seeking power promise to include the excluded, once in power populists attacked the institutions of liberal democracy, grabbed power, aimed to control social movements and civil society, and clashed with the privately owned media.

Transnational Social Movements in Latin America

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marisa von Bülow
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Transnational Social Movements ◽  
Collective Action Problems ◽  
Diffusion Paths

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.

Indigenous Political Representation in Latin America

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberta Rice
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Political System ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Indigenous Movements

Indigenous peoples have become important social and political actors in contemporary Latin America. The politicization of ethnic identities in the region has divided analysts into those who view it as a threat to democratic stability versus those who welcome it as an opportunity to improve the quality of democracy. Throughout much of Latin America’s history, Indigenous peoples’ demands have been oppressed, ignored, and silenced. Latin American states did not just exclude Indigenous peoples’ interests; they were built in opposition to or even against them. The shift to democracy in the 1980s presented Indigenous groups with a dilemma: to participate in elections and submit themselves to the rules of a largely alien political system that had long served as an instrument of their domination or seek a measure of representation through social movements while putting pressure on the political system from the outside. In a handful of countries, most notably Bolivia and Ecuador, Indigenous movements have successfully overcome this tension by forming their own political parties and contesting elections on their own terms. The emergence of Indigenous peoples’ movements and parties has opened up new spaces for collective action and transformed the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the state. Indigenous movements have reinvigorated Latin America’s democracies. The political exclusion of Indigenous peoples, especially in countries with substantial Indigenous populations, has undoubtedly contributed to the weakness of party systems and the lack of accountability, representation, and responsiveness of democracies in the region. In Bolivia, the election of the country’s first Indigenous president, Evo Morales (2006–present) of the Movement toward Socialism (MAS) party, has resulted in new forms of political participation that are, at least in part, inspired by Indigenous traditions. A principal consequence of the broadening of the democratic process is that Indigenous activists are no longer forced to choose between party politics and social movements. Instead, participatory mechanisms allow civil society actors and their organizations to increasingly become a part of the state. New forms of civil society participation such as Indigenous self-rule broaden and deepen democracy by making it more inclusive and government more responsive and representative. Indigenous political representation is democratizing democracy in the region by pushing the limits of representative democracy in some of the most challenging socio-economic and institutional environments.

scholarly journals América Latina: cidades, memórias e esquecimentos sob o olhar da literatura

REVISTA PLURI ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 91
Author(s):  
Yvone Dias Avelino
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
The Real ◽  
American Novels ◽  
History And Literature ◽  
America Latina ◽  
American Authors

Este artigo formula algumas reflexões sobre a associação da história com a literatura. Estabelecemos alguns nexos com trabalhos literários de autores latino-americanos do século XX. Nas páginas desses romances latino-americanos desfilam os expoentes de toda uma estrutura de dominação: políticos, velhos aristocratas, oportunistas recém-chegados, fazendeiros truculentos, funcionários públicos subservientes, advogados venais, representantes do capitalismo local, dominados e dominantes. Mostram-nos os vários escritores latino-americanos as ditaduras na sua insanidade grotesca, as repressões cruentas que fazem emergir os movimentos sociais populares. Estão presentes as turbulências do real e imaginário, utilitário e mágico, da dúvida e perplexidade, memória e esperança, do esquecimento e da desesperança, do espelho e labirinto.Palavras-chave: História, Literatura, Espelho, Labirinto, América Latina.AbstractThis article proposes some reflections about the association between history and literature. We have established some links with literary works written by Latin American authors of the twentieth century. In the pages of these Latin American novels the exponents of a whole structure of domination are paraded: politicians, old aristocrats, opportunist newcomers, truculent farmers, subservient civil servants, venal lawyers, representatives of local capitalism, dominated and dominant ones. The various Latin American writers show us dictatorships in their grotesque insanity, the bloody repressions that allow popular social movements to emerge. They outline the turbulences of the real and imaginary, utilitarian and magical, doubt and perplexity, memory and hope, forgetfulness and hopelessness, mirror and labyrinth.Keywords: History, Literature, Mirror, Labyrinth, Latin America.

Social Movements in Latin America: Paradigms, People, and Politics

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 20-39
Author(s):  
Ronaldo Munck
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
American Perspective ◽  
Power And Resistance ◽  
America Latina ◽  
Theoretical Paradigms ◽  
Sobre Todo ◽  
Movimientos Sociales

Social movements in Latin America have always attracted attention, but there is no agreed-upon paradigm, certainly not one accepted in Latin America. A review from a Latin American perspective of the strengths and weaknesses of the theoretical paradigms used to understand these movements suggests a revitalized paradigm that foregrounds the agency of people and, above all, brings politics back in. A proposed new, poststructuralist Marxist frame for research on both theory and practice puts a Foucauldian emphasis on the dissoluble links between power and resistance and a Laclau-inspired emphasis on the national-popular. Aunque los movimientos sociales en América Latina siempre han llamado la atención, no hay un paradigma acordado; ciertamente, no uno que se acepte en la región. Un análisis desde una perspectiva latinoamericana de las fortalezas y debilidades de los paradigmas teóricos utilizados para entender estos movimientos sugiere un marco revitalizado que pone en primer plano la agencia de las personas y, sobre todo, recupera el tema de la política. El nuevo paradigma marxista postestructuralista aquí propuesto para la investigación tanto teórica como práctica pone un énfasis foucauldiano en los vínculos disolubles entre el poder y la resistencia, así como un énfasis en lo nacional y popular inspirado por Laclau.

Latin America, a Continent in Movement but Where To? A Review of Social Movements' Studies in the Region

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 535-551 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Inclán
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
Systematic Study ◽  
Social Mobilization ◽  
The Future ◽  
Empirical Implications

This article offers a review of the most salient studies on Latin American social movements published in the last 25 years. It not only assesses the questions and empirical implications that these studies have uncovered, but it also points out theoretical and empirical puzzles that are currently investigated or are yet to be examined. In doing so, this article reviews two type of studies: those that in the author's opinion cover the most salient movements in the region and those that offer us most promising propositions for the development of the subfield in the future. With this review, the author hopes to open the debate and help include Latin American social movements within the systematic study of comparative social mobilization in sociology and comparative politics.

Social Movements and Progressive Governments: Building a New Relationship in Latin America

2016 ◽  
Vol 67 (8) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Marta Harnecker
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Major Element ◽  
Latin American Politics ◽  
New Social Movements ◽  
Berlin Wall ◽  
Presidential Candidates ◽  
Social Organizations

The major element missing from Latin American politics in recent decades has been, with rare exceptions, the traditional workers' movement, beaten down by flexibilization, subcontracting, and other neoliberal measures.&hellip; The fall of the Berlin Wall and the defeat of Soviet socialism left the parties and social organizations of the left inspired by that model seriously weakened. At the same time, trade unions were hit hard by the weakening of the working class, part of the larger social fragmentation produced by neoliberalism. In that context, it was new social movements, and not the traditional parties and social organizations of the left, that rose to the forefront of the struggle against neoliberalism, in forms that varied widely from one country to another.&hellip; The situation in the 1980s and '90s in Latin America was comparable in some respects to the experience of pre-revolutionary Russia in the early twentieth century.&hellip; [M]any of the region's peoples said "enough" and started mobilizing, first in defensive resistance, then passing to the offensive. As a result, presidential candidates of the left or center-left began to triumph, only to face the following alternative: either embrace the neoliberal model, or advance an alternative project motivated by a logic of solidarity and human development.&hellip; [Consequently,] a major debate has emerged over the role that new social movements should adopt in relation to the progressive governments that have inspired hope in many Latin American nations.<p class="mrlink"><p class="mrpurchaselink"><a href="http://monthlyreview.org/index/volume-67-number-8" title="Vol. 67, No. 8: January 2016" target="_self">Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the <em>Monthly Review</em> website.</a></p>

Toward a New Agenda for the Study of Religion in the Americas

1999 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel A. Vásquez
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Scholarly Work ◽  
Global Context ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Definition Of

Recent scholarly work on Latin American religion reflects the pluralism and fragmentation of both religion and civil society. What effect will religious practice at the local, “micro” level have on institutions and structures at the “macro” level-namely, the process of democratization? A deeper, simultaneously more foundational and more encompassing definition of democratic politics might be involved. In an increasingly global context, the study of religion and social change in Latin America and among U.S. Latinos needs to take a comparative, truly interamerican approach.

Characteristics of Latin American Political Thought

1966 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D. Martz
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
American Political Thought ◽  
Intellectual Elite ◽  
The World ◽  
Public Responsibility

In few areas of the world are the role and contribution of the intellectual elite more significant than in Latin America. Its membership has historically been in the forefront of major political and social movements, and there has been somewhat less of the distaste for politics and public responsibility than is often found elsewhere. Leading intellectuals are widely respected and nationally prominent, enjoying a degree of prestige that is scarcely exceeded in any other region. The pensador—sometimes likened to the eighteenth-century philosophe— has been intimately involved in major political movements from colonial times to the present.

scholarly journals Soziale Bewegungen in Lateinamerika

2006 ◽  
Vol 36 (142) ◽  
pp. 7-22
Author(s):  
"Mónica Bruckmann ◽  
Theotonio Dos Santos
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Latin America ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Russian Revolution ◽  
Soziale Bewegungen ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Military ◽  
Latin American Countries

At the beginning of the 20th century, social movements in Latin America were heavily influenced by anarchist immigrants from Europe and then by the ideological struggles around the Russian revolution. Beginning in the 1930s, many social movements started to incorporate into leftwing and populist parties and governments, such as the Cardenismo in Mexico. Facing the shift of many governments towards the left and the 'threat' of socialist Cuba, ultrarightwing groups and the military, supported by the US, responded in many countries with brutal repression and opened the neoliberal era. Today, after 30 years of repression and neoliberal hegemony, the social movements are gaining strength again in many Latin American countries. With the anti-globalization movement, new insurrections like the Zapatismo in Mexico, and some leftwing governments coming into power in Venezuela, Brasil and other countries, there appears to be a new turn in Latin America's road to the future.

The Postreform Stage: Understanding Backlash against Sexual Policies in Latin America

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Verónica Pérez Bentancur ◽  
Cecilia Rocha-Carpiuc
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Induced Abortion ◽  
Marriage Equality ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Democratic Transitions ◽  
Same Sex Marriage ◽  
Legislative Changes ◽  
Latin American Countries

In Latin America, it is difficult to win approval for policies that allow induced abortion and same-sex marriage. Social movements face more obstacles in promoting these policies than in promoting other gender and LGBTQ policies because abortion and same-sex marriage are particularly contentious issues. These policies involve doctrinal or countercultural topics, and supporters of these legislative changes must confront groups that mobilize to block these reform efforts (Blofield 2006; Corrales 2015; Díez 2015; Friedman 2019; Grzymała-Busse 2015; Htun 2003). Yet in the period following democratic transitions, some Latin American countries successfully liberalized their legislation concerning abortion and marriage equality.

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