European Left Populism and Authoritarian Populism

The emergence of left populism, mainly in Southern Europe, in the decade of 2010, questioned the impression that populism in Europe was only right-wing oriented. On the other hand, the expansion of populism as a common denomination favored the perception that all populisms were the same, regardless of ideology: a threat to democracy. It explains why many left parties are reluctant towards being labelled as populist. Besides, left-wing populism connected with the one from Latin America one decade before where the tensions between democratization and authoritarianism have been widely discussed. The European public opinion usually relates the Latin American left populist governments with authoritarianism, associated with the situation in Venezuela first with Hugo Chávez and, especially, now with Nicolás Maduro. For this reason, left populism in Europe was made suspicious of being authoritarian.

The Longue Durée of the Marxist Theory of Dependency and the Twenty-First Century

A critical review of the 50-year-old Marxist theory of dependency and its current situation includes discussion of its analyses of the world-system, the concepts of superexploitation and subimperialism, its reflections on development, democracy, and proposals for emancipation, and its perspectives on the rise of the Latin American left in the twenty-first century and the prospects of neoconservatism. It concludes that with the globalization of capital, Marxist dependency theory must oppose not only internal structures of dependency but the imperialist world order, and this will call for the socialization of the forces of production and the development of national, continental and global strategies. Uma revisão crítica dos 50 anos de debates sobre a teoria marxista da dependência e seu estado da arte, que inclui a discussão de suas análises do sistema-mundo, os conceitos de superexploração e subimperialismo, suas reflexões sobre desenvolvimento, democracia e propostas de emancipação, e suas perspectivas sobre a ascensão da esquerda latino-americana no século XXI e as perspectivas do neoconservadorismo. Conclui que, com a globalização do capital, a teoria marxista da dependência deve assumir sua vocação de luta não apenas contra as estruturas internas da dependência mas também contra a ordem mundial imperialista, e isso exigirá o desenvolvimento de estratégias nacionais, continentais e mundiais.

"China" as an Analytical Concept: A New Beginning for Chinese Political Science

The emergence in recent years of a large number of institutional concepts in the world of Chinese political science indicates that Chinese political science is experiencing an "internal shift" that is different from the complete Westernization of the past. Chinese political scientists are seeking theoretical explanations for China's political development based on China's internal context and are looking to provide intellectual arguments for China's modern state building. In this paper, it is proposed that the core of this internal shift of Chinese political science is the consciousness of "China" as an analytical concept, and that China is not only an object of description, but also an analytical perspective for explaining "what is China". Such a view is different from that held by the European and American left and pure traditional researchers or reactionists. On the one hand, this paradigm provides more universal political knowledge in the sense of comparative political science; on the other hand, it can advance Chinese political research by drawing a clearer and more accurate knowledge map of Chinese politics. The emergence of institutional concepts in Chinese political science implies that Chinese political science as a discipline is increasingly moving from the "form" of discipline establishment to the "content" of "what is China". This signifies a real new beginning.