Repoliticizing Latin America: The Revival of Populist and Leftist Alternatives

O ver the past decade, popular social and political movements have been revived in much of Latin America following an extended period of fragmentation and demobilization. Popular movements had been placed on the defensive for most of the 1980s and 1990s by political and economic events largely beyond their control—in particular, the region-wide debt crisis, market-oriented economic reforms, and restrictive democratic transitions. In recent years, however, indigenous groups, workers, and the urban and rural poor have demonstrated a renewed capacity to engage in collective action and political mobilization. Grass-roots protest movements have driven presidents from office in Argentina, Bolivia, and Ecuador, and they have eclipsed or realigned traditional party systems in a number of countries. Meanwhile, a diverse set of populist and/or leftist leaders have been elected president in Venezuela (1998), Chile (2000 and 2006), Brazil (2002 and 2006), Argentina (2003), Uruguay (2004), Bolivia (2005), Peru (2006), Ecuador (2006), and Nicaragua (2006)—countries which comprise nearly two-thirds of the regional population. This revival of popular and leftist movements has shaken up Latin America’s postCold War political landscape, and it has startled scholars and policymakers alike. After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the diffusion of the so-called “Washington Consensus”1 for free market or neoliberal reform,2 many came to believe in the definitive triumph of political and economic liberalism—or democracy and capitalism—in the region. Colburn,3 for example, claimed that the left had “all but vanished” by the 1990’s, placing Latin America at “the end of politics,” if not Fukuyama’s “end of history.”4 With labor unions in decline, populist and leftist parties in disarray, and neoliberal technocrats in control of policymaking arenas, Latin America appeared to be locking in a new model of development based on market individualism and global economic integration. This model of development was strongly supported by the United States and international financial institutions, and it seemingly confirmed the uncontested character of U.S. hegemony in the region following the demise of the Soviet bloc. Today, however, the “end of politics” appears to have been little more than a NOVEMBER 2007