The Impasse Of The Latin American Left

In The Impasse of the Latin American Left, Franck Gaudichaud, Massimo Modonesi, and Jeffery R. Webber explore the region’s Pink Tide as a political, economic, and cultural phenomenon. At the turn of the twenty-first century, Latin American politics experienced an upsurge in progressive movements, as popular uprisings for land and autonomy led to the election of left and center-left governments across Latin America. These progressive parties institutionalized social movements and established forms of state capitalism that sought to redistribute resources and challenge neoliberalism. Yet, as the authors demonstrate, these governments failed to transform the underlying class structures of their societies or challenge the imperial strategies of the United States and China. Now, as the Pink Tide has largely receded, the authors offer a portrait of this watershed period in Latin American history in order to evaluate the successes and failures of the left and to offer a clear-eyed account of the conditions that allowed for a right-wing resurgence.

Latin America experienced an unprecedented wave of left-leaning governments between 1998 and 2010. This volume examines the causes of this leftward turn and the consequences it carries for the region in the twenty-first century. The Resurgence of the Latin American Left asks three central questions: Why have left-wing parties and candidates flourished in Latin America? How have these leftist parties governed, particularly in terms of social and economic policy? What effects has the rise of the Left had on democracy and development in the region? The book addresses these questions through two sections. The first looks at several major themes regarding the contemporary Latin American Left, including whether Latin American public opinion actually shifted leftward in the 2000s, why the Left won in some countries but not in others, and how the left turn has affected market economies, social welfare, popular participation in politics, and citizenship rights. The second section examines social and economic policy and regime trajectories in eight cases: those of leftist governments in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Uruguay, and Venezuela, as well as that of a historically populist party that governed on the right in Peru. Featuring a new typology of Left parties in Latin America, an original framework for identifying and categorizing variation among these governments, and contributions from prominent and influential scholars of Latin American politics, this historical-institutional approach to understanding the region’s left turn—and variation within it—is the most comprehensive explanation to date on the topic.

This provocative, multidisciplinary work explores the dramatic resurgence of the Left in Latin America since the late 1990s. Offering a comprehensive account of the complexities and nuances of the shifting political tides in the region, the book provides both a theoretical framework for assessing the state of the Left and a set of cases highlighting key movements, successes, and failures. Its theoretical scope covers socialist strategy, working-class formation, peasant social movements, the role of women in popular politics, and the response of outside powers. These themes provide the foundation for rich country studies of the new Left in Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Too often, the book argues, the rise of the new Left has been the subject of caricature, either through conservative defamation or populist romanticism. Working from a range of critical perspectives, the contributors consider the Left’s hopes, aims, and prospects, as well as its contradictions and fissures. As the first book to systematically consider the contemporary relevance of the Left, it will be central to any understanding of Latin American politics and society today. Contributions by: Ricardo Antunes, Marc Becker, Jared Bibler, Barry Carr, Emilia Castorina, Todd Gordon, Sujatha Fernandes, Claudio Katz, Fernando Leiva, Marco Mojica, Héctor Perla Jr., Richard Roman, Susan Spronk, Edur Velasco Arregui, Henry Veltmeyer, Leandro Vergara-Camus, Jeffery R. Webber, and Gregory Wilpert.

Social and Political Transitions During the Left Turn in Latin America provides fourteen contributions to understand, from a multidisciplinary perspective, processes of socio-political reconfigurations in the region from the early 2000s to the mid-2010s. The Left Turn was the regional shift to left-of-center governments and social movements that sought to replace the neoliberal policies of the 1990s. This volume aims to answer the overarching research question: how do state and societal (national and transnational) actors trigger and shape processes of political and socio-economic transitions in Latin America from the rise to the decline of the Left Turn. The book presents case studies in which transitions are moments of change and uncertainty, which one cannot predict their definitive outcomes. The various case studies presented in the book place actors and processes in specific historical and socio-political contexts, which are influenced directly or indirectly by the historical trajectory of Latin America’s Left Turn. This book is essential reading for students and scholars of Social and Political History, Latin American History, and those interested in the social and political developments in Latin America more broadly.

Tells the story behind Latin America's failed leftist movements of the past thirty years and examines the position of the left in Latin American politics today.

"An extraordinary collection. This volume is a must-read for anyone interested in the current dynamics of Latin American politics."ùJulio F. Carrion, University of Delaware --

Throughout the 2000s Latin America transformed itself into the leading edge of anti-neoliberal resistance in the world. What is left of the Pink Tide today? What is their relationship to the explosive social movements that propelled them to power? As China's demand slackens for Latin American commodities, will governments continue to rely on natural resource extraction? In an accessible and penetrating volume, Jeffery Webber examines the most important questions facing the Latin American left today.