Populism and Passive Revolution. About “The Uses of Gramsci” in Latin America

Abstract

In the context of crisis of Latin American populist goverments, some authors have made a comparison between these goverments and classic populisms of the region. Using Gramscian categories, mainly the passive revolution concept, these analyzes see in the populist intervention a closure from above of the social dynamics that would have encouraged the beginning of these processes. Taking up some background of this discussion in the Argentine social sciences, this paper tries to problematize the interpretation of Latin American populisms —both classic and current— that underlies those views and proposes in that sense a review of the origins of Peronism.