The Rise of Populism and the Left in Latin America

Latin America’s “left turn” was the focus of a cluster of thoughtful articles in the October 2006 issue of this journal. Since then, the trend toward the left and toward populist governments has deepened. In South America, the rise of the left is unmistakable, with Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela led by presidents with varying degrees and shapes of leftist ideology, while further north, in Mexico, a leftist presidential candidate was defeated by the narrowest of margins in the 2006 election. And of course, one must not forget about Cuba, the remaining dictatorship in the region, still firmly in the hands of the socialist left in spite of the protracted and serious illness of Fidel Castro. The most recent additions to the populist left are Bolivia’s Evo Morales, who took office in 2006, and Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, who began his presidency in early 2007. In Paraguay, the decades-old hegemony of the Colorado Party is being challenged by suspended Roman Catholic bishop Fernando Lugo, who espouses a mixture of leftist and populist rhetoric. These are remarkable changes for the region. While leftists have held power in the past, never before in Latin America have so many countries been governed by presidents of the left. It should be added that the ideological variations among them are great, however. Presidents Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva of Brazil and Michelle Bachelet of Chile support free trade and close ties with the United States, while Hugo Chávez of Venezuela employs a rhetoric replete with praise of socialism and attacks on capitalism and the United States. Mitchell A. Seligson is Centennial Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University and directs the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP), which conducts the AmericasBarometer surveys. He serves on the Advisory Board of the Inter-American Program on Education for Democratic Values and Practices of the Organization of American States.