More Alive than Ever: Lessons and Legacies of Twenty-five Years of South American Populisms

Abstract

The question “What is left of the left-populist tide in South America ten years later?” is deceptively simple. Yet the truth is that answering it is more complicated than it seems. There are two sets of problems with that query. First, the terms of the problem are less obvious than what it seems at first sight. Neither “the tide”, “left” and “populism” are self-evident in their meaning. It is unclear exactly when the tide ended, or even if it truly did. It is also unclear what exactly “left” and “populism” mean. Many people have argued that the governments commonly included in the populist tide were not truly left; also, the division between populists and non-populist leftist governments is not as evident today as it seemed to be twenty years ago. Added to that is the fact that one must reflect on the word “legacy” as well. Legacies can be defined as those elements which subsist even though the original phenomenon that caused them has ceased to be. But it can be hard to parse what element or dimension of today’s political landscape is a legacy of these left populisms and not, say, of the neoliberal governments that preceded and followed them. On the other hand, however, these governments were durable and resilient, even more so than other leftist experiences in the region. In this article, we start by parsing the first set of questions, to wit: what was the tide, when it began and where it ended; what can be considered populist; and what can be considered leftists. Then, at the end, we reflect on the legacies of these governments from a political and a theoretical point. We will argue that populism is very much alive in the region, and that its study continues to be worthwhile. Moreover, populism as a political strategy is not only alive in the region, but has expanded to the rest of the world. The tide of left populism receded but it is clear now that, after twenty-five years of its start not only does left populism continue to exist, but that strategy has been widely adopted by the right and even by the far right. More to the point: non-populist leftist experiences are not necessarily more successful than the populist ones. Therefore, analysis and political practitioners worldwide still need to contemplate its possibilities.