In search of exits from the neoliberal labyrinth: social movements and reconfigured states in Brazil and Mexico

Abstract

In both Brazil and Mexico, the 2018 elections resulted in an important “regime change”. Although the victory of the ultra-right in Brazil appears a replica of tendencies in the United States and Europe, an expression of rejection of the established political class, some analysts see the triumph of López Obrador in Mexico as a phenomenon of the same type, suggesting that it is simply a matter of “right-wing” and “left-wing” versions of a “populist” reaction to crisis conditions. This article aims to qualify this analysis, giving greater consideration to the different histories of Brazil and Mexico, together with the configuration of forces, national and transnational, behind the contemporary scenarios. From a perspective that takes into account both enduring structures of social power and the impacts of neoliberal economic policies and rule systems on the social fabric, the coherence of anti-systemic movements, and the administration of public life, one can better appreciate the challenges to exiting the neoliberal labyrinth on the basis of actions “from below”.