Description
Book SynopsisIn
The Impasse of the Latin American Left, Franck Gaudichaud, Massimo Modonesi, and Jeffery R. Webber explore the region’s Pink Tide as a political, economic, and cultural phenomenon. At the turn of the twenty-first century, Latin American politics experienced an upsurge in progressive movements, as popular uprisings for land and autonomy led to the election of left and center-left governments across Latin America. These progressive parties institutionalized social movements and established forms of state capitalism that sought to redistribute resources and challenge neoliberalism. Yet, as the authors demonstrate, these governments failed to transform the underlying class structures of their societies or challenge the imperial strategies of the United States and China. Now, as the Pink Tide has largely receded, the authors offer a portrait of this watershed period in Latin American history in order to evaluate the successes and failures of the left and to offer a clear-eye
Trade Review“
The Impasse of the Latin American Left develops a persuasive, systematic periodization of complex relations between class struggles, progressivisms, the left, and popular movements from the 1990s to the present. The book successfully gives coherence to the chaotic processes of historical change across the region.” -- Anderson Bean * Tempest *
“In three substantive chapters, the authors clearly and concisely unlock the rise of the first Pink Tide, detailing the complexities behind Leftist governments. . . . Recommended.” -- K. R. Shaffer * Choice *
“This book argues that antineoliberal ‘plebeian rebellions’ caused the dramatic regional shift to left-leaning governance that took place at the turn of the twenty-first century. As the pendulum swings back towards the right, Franck Gaudichaud, Massimo Modonesi, and Jeffery Webber’s
The Impasse of the Latin American Left assesses to what extent ‘progressive’ governments realized the transformative aspirations of those rebellions. Their contributions are deeply anchored in work by and about Latin Americans…. This book offers cogent structural critiques of deeply structural impasses.” -- Elisabeth Jay Friedman * Mobilization *
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1
1. Conflict, Blood, and Hope: Popular Movements and Progressive Politics in the Storm of the Latin American Class Struggle 11
2. World Market, Patterns of Accumulation, and Imperial Domination: The Political Economy of the Latin American Left 75
3. Latin American Progressivism: An Epochal Debate 109
Conclusion 143
COVID-19 Postscript 151
Acknowledgments 167
Notes 169
Index 197
