Description
Book SynopsisThis timely book analyzes the governing experiences of the nine major leftist governments in Latin America. The individual country case study chapters are preceded by chapters that frame the discussion by considering the theoretical implications of the Pink Tide experience relating to globalization, the state, and neo-extractivism. The contributors examine the Pink Tide policies and rhetoric that gained widespread approval and led to the long tenure of many of these governments. These included ambitious social programs, prioritizing the needs of the poor, nationalistic foreign policy, economic nationalism, and asserting control of strategic sectors of the economy. The book continues by taking a critical look at policies that have contributed to recent setbacks, acknowledging the inability of progressive governments to overcome embedded structures holding back economic development. One such setback has come from the opposition—often supported by powerful foreign actors—pressuring the government into making concessions and carrying out policies that ultimately undermined economic and political stability. With its balanced and thorough assessment, this book will provide readers with a deep and nuanced understanding of the complexity of the political, economic, and sociocultural reality of contemporary Latin America and the Caribbean. The contributors critically examine these policies, which were politically successful in the short run but eventually backfired in the form of corruption, bureaucratic waste, and economic sluggishness. With its thorough and knowledgeable assessment, this book will provide readers with a deep and nuanced understanding of the complexity of the political, economic, and sociocultural reality of contemporary Latin America and the Caribbean.
Trade ReviewBeginning in the late 1990s, Latin American voters elected presidents who identified as progressives and socialists. Today, the tide has turned, and the right has returned to power seeking to undo the legacy of the past twenty years. These essays, written by leading social scientists committed to the process of change in Latin America, is required reading for anyone trying to understand the rise and eventual demise of the progressive governments that dominated Latin America over the past two decades. -- Miguel R. Tinker Salas, Pomona College
In a world swept by winds of change, Latin America’s plural lefts have built windmills not walls since 1998. This volume’s contributors are not among those who sit on the mountaintop, looking down on the battlefield, to appear when the fighting is over to lecture the survivors. This stimulating collection contributes to the future of living projects by those convinced that another world is possible. -- John D. French, Duke University
Latin America’s, Pink Tide is now well in retreat. Finally, the book we’ve been waiting for: a measured, insightful, and comprehensive assessment of what worked, what didn’t, and why, by some of the sharpest analysts of Latin America’s left. Exceptional in its breadth—offering global, regional, national, and local perspectives—and impressive in its depth—anchored in rich empirical evidence underlain by convincing theoretical arguments—this book sets the standard for careful analysis of the promise and limits of the Pink Tide. Debates about the left’s accomplishments in power will long continue. But for anyone wanting seriously to engage with the legacy of those years, and what comes next, this book is a must-read. -- Alejandro Velasco, New York University, executive editor of NACLA: Report on the Americas
Table of ContentsForeword Boaventura de Sousa Santos Introduction: Latin America’s Pink Tide Governments: Challenges, Breakthroughs, and Setbacks Steve Ellner PART I: THEORETICAL OVERVIEW Introduction 1 Latin America’s Pink Tide: The Straitjacket of Global Capitalism William I. Robinson 2 Has the Pink Tide Cycle Come to an End? Will It Have a Long-Lasting Impact? Steve Ellner 3 Walking the “Tightrope” of Socialist Governance: A Strategic Relational Analysis of Twenty-First-Century Socialism Marcel Nelson PART II: THE SOUTHERN CONE: BRAZIL, URUGUAY, AND ARGENTINA Introduction 4 The Limits of Pragmatism: The Rise and Fall of the Brazilian Workers’ Party (2002–2016) Pedro Mendes Loureiro and Alfredo Saad-Filho 5 The Frente Amplio Governments in Uruguay: Policy Strategies and Results Nicolás Bentancur and José Miguel Busquets 6 Kirchnerism in Latin America’s Anti-neoliberal Cycle Mabel Thwaites Rey and Jorge Orovitz Sanmartino PART III: THE RADICAL PINK TIDE: VENEZUELA, BOLIVIA, AND ECUADOR Introduction 7 Class Strategies in Chavista Venezuela: Pragmatic and Populist Policies in a Broader Context Steve Ellner 8 An Opportunity Squandered? Elites, Social Movements, and the Bolivian Government of Evo Morales Linda Farthing 9 Left Populism, Democracy, State Building and the Ephemeral Counterhegemony of the Citizens’ Revolution in Ecuador Patrick Clark and Jacobo García 10 Neo-extractivism, Class Formations, and the Pink Tide: Considerations on the Venezuelan Case Luis Fernando Angosto-Ferrández PART IV: CENTRAL AMERICA: NICARAGUA, EL SALVADOR, AND MEXICO Introduction 11 The Rise and Fall of Sandinista Alliances as a Means of Sociopolitical Change in Nicaragua Héctor M. Cruz-Feliciano 12 The Limits of Change: El Salvador’s FMLN in Power Hilary Goodfriend 13 The Last Surfer to Hit the Beach: Mexico and the “Pink Tide” John M. Ackerman Index About the Contributors
