Conservative Thought In Twentieth Century Latin America

Laureano Gómez was president of Colombia in the early 1950s until overthrown by a military coup. He was also, for some fifty years, the leading exponent of Latin American conservatism, a political philosophy with roots in both nineteenth-century politics and religion. Focusing on Gómez, and other prominent conservative politicians, Henderson traces the evolution of Latin American conservatism and demonstrates the scope of its influence throughout the continent. While much has been written about particular Marxist movements and right-wing regimes in contemporary Latin America, little attention has been devoted, in recent years, to the more moderate political institutions and individuals which dominate twentieth-century Latin America. This first account of Latin American conservatism should be of interest to all students of the history and politics of the region.

The Right in the Americas discusses the origins, development, and current state of conservative and right-wing movements in ten countries in the Americas. The growth of the right is one of the most important issues of the moment in global politics. Within the context of democracy erosion, rejection of traditional politics, and economic uncertainty, right and extreme-right actors are capable of offering misguided answers and hope to a significant part of a country’s population, who will trust their promises and bring them to power with their vote. This dynamic has repeated itself in an astonishingly consistent pattern across the Americas. This book analyses eight Latin American countries - Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, Uruguay, and Venezuela - along with Canada and the United States, two G7 countries. It demonstrates that conservatism is in fact a hemispheric phenomenon, promoted and invigorated by the regional hegemon—the United States of America—both as government and as civil society. Beyond this regional scope, the peculiarities of each case study are explored in detail, providing solid historical background, while at the same time uncovering their commonalities and cross-pollination. This study will be of great interest to scholars of conservatism, right-wing politics, comparative politics, and North American and Latin American politics.

The Cambridge History of Latin America is a large scale, collaborative, multi-volume history of Latin America during the five centuries from the first contacts between Europeans and the native peoples of the Americas in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries to the present. Ideas and Ideologies in Twentieth-Century Latin America brings together chapters from Volumes IV, VI, and IX of The Cambridge History to provide in a single volume the economic, social and political ideologies of Latin America since 1870. This, it is hoped, will be useful for both teachers and students of Latin American history and of contemporary Latin America. Each chapter is accompanied by a bibliographical essay.

Debating the American Conservative Movement chronicles one of the most dramatic stories of modern American political history. The authors describe how a small band of conservatives in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War launched a revolution that shifted American politics to the right, challenged the New Deal order, transformed the Republican party into a voice of conservatism, and set the terms of debate in American politics as the country entered the new millennium. Historians Donald T. Critchlow and Nancy MacLean frame two opposing perspectives of how the history of conservatism in modern America can be understood, but readers are encouraged to reach their own conclusions through reading engaging primary documents.

The general perception of modern Latin American political institutions emphasizes a continuing and random process of disorder and crisis, continually out of step with other regions in their progress toward democracy and prosperity. In "History of Political Parties in Twentieth-Century Latin America," Torcuato S. Di Tella demonstrates that this common view lacks context and comparative nuance, and is deeply misleading. Looking behind the scenes of modern Latin American history, he discerns its broad patterns through close analysis of actual events and comparative sociological perspectives that explain the apparent chaos of the past and point toward the more democratic polity now developing. Di Tella argues that although Latin America has peculiarities of its own, they must be understood in their contrasts - and similarities - with both the developed centers and undeveloped peripheries of the world. Latin American societies have been prone to mass rebellions from very early on, more so than in other regions of the world. He analyzes, as well, such significant exceptions to this pattern as Chile, Colombia, and, to a large extent, Brazil. Turning to the other side of the social spectrum, he shows how the underprivileged classes have tended to support strongman populist movements, which have the double character of being aggressive toward the established order, but at the same time repressive of public liberties and of more radical groups. Di Tella provides here a necessary examination of the concept of populism and divides it into several variants. Populism, he maintains, is by no means disappearing, but its variants are instead undergoing important changes with significant bearing on the region's near-term future. "History of Political Parties in Twentieth-Century Latin America" is rich in historical description, but also in its broad review of social structures and of the strengths and weaknesses of political institutions. Choice commented that "this heavily documented volume with an extensive bibliography would prove valuable to researchers and advanced students of Latin America.

"Devoting particular emphasis to Bolivia, Chile, and Mexico, proposes a theory of civil society to explain the economic and political challenges for continuing democratization in Latin America"--Provided by publisher.

If America has been an unsympathetic environment for conservatism, conservatism has, nevertheless, demonstrated an extraordinary tenacity in politics, literature, law, religion, economics, and social thought. Conservatism forms a dissent within the liberal tradition, and also deserves a hearing from any serious student of American history. William F. Buckley, Jr. brought this issue to the forefront in this outstanding collection featuring some of the greatest political thinkers of the twentieth century.This volume illuminates many aspects of the elusive 'conservatism' of which so much has been written, and helps to explain why it is that conservatism survives in politics, economics, social sciences, and the arts. Buckley has drawn from the works of renowned scholars and from those of relatively obscure figures, whose contributions he persuasively puts forward as deeply influential in the crystallization of modern conservative thought.This collection of essays begins by analyzing the history and background of American institutions. It then goes on to inspect strong American presumption in favor of the private sector and the nature of specific challenges to modern society, as well as the response of conservative thought and analysis to those challenges. Pluralists will welcome the approach in this book, and others will be excited by prestigious authors.

To understand Latin America's political culture, and to understand why it differs so greatly from that of the United States, one must look beyond the political history of the region, Howard J. Wiarda explains in this comprehensive book. A highly respected expert on Latin American politics, Wiarda explores a sweeping array of Iberian and Latin American social, economic, institutional, cultural, and religious factors from ancient times to the twentieth century. He illuminates the distinctive political attitudes and traditions of Latin America as well as the unique--and not widely understood--features of present-day Latin American models of democracy. While Ibero-American and Western liberal traditions draw from the same classical thinkers, they often emphasize different ideas and reach different conclusions, Wiarda contends. He traces the influences of Rome, Islam, medieval Christianity, the Reconquest, and Iberian feudalism, and the powerful but largely unacknowledged effects of the Counter-Reformation on Iberian and Latin American civilizations. The author concludes with a discussion of recent changes in political culture and an assessment of the strength of democracy's hold in the nations of Latin America.