Latin American Turns to The Left

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Latin America Turns to The Left Within the last 20 years many Latin American nations have changed course from a neoliberal polity to one that is sided more to the left wing spectrum. “A significant part of Latin America is governed today by political movements and governments that call themselves ‘leftist’ or are classified as such by external observers.” (Luna) Furthermore, the shift in direction politically has been classified by 3 factors; “1) opposing incumbents by mobilizing economic and political discontent; 2) being able to bring together a broad, socially heterogeneous electoral constituency in the context of fragmented societies; and 3) having a charismatic leader who was able to achieve 2 by pursuing 1.” (Luna) These dramatic shifts originally began as protests against the lack of incorporation and equality within the neoliberal governments. Over time, these movements gained momentum and ultimately resulted in a noticeable shift throughout the entire region of Latin America. “Lula in Brazil, Nestor Kirchner in Argentina, Tabare Vasquez in Uruguay, Michelle Bachelet in Chile, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, and Rafael Correa in Ecuador.” (Lynch) According to Maxwel A. Cameron, this succession to left wing politics occurred due to ‘the disenchantment with neoliberalism, the poor performance of democratic governments and the waning of US influence in the Western Hemisphere created opportunities for the left throughout the region.” (Cameron) A major failure of neoliberal polity was its inability to provide political equality and arguably more important, equality economically. “There is a fundamental contradiction between a regime based on political equality such as democ... ... middle of paper ... ...nd the points they were trying to make. Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that a fair amount of the material written within this article was simply beyond my realm of comprehension and focused more on understanding the main ideas as opposed to understanding all of the supporting details. Both authors have lived, studied, and worked as professors within Latin America and have extensive awards and credentials in the field. Works Cited Cameron, Maxwell A. “Latin America’s Left Turns: Beyond Good and Bad.” Third World Quarterly, Mar2009, Vol. 30 Issue 2. Lynch, Nicolás. “What the Left Means in Latin American Now.” Constellations: An International Journal of Critical & Democratic Theory, Sep2007, Vol. 14 Issue 3. Luna, Juan Pablo; Filgueira, Fernando. “The Left Turns as Multiple Paradigmatic Crises.”Third World Quarterly, Mar2009, Vol. 30 Issue 2.

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