Description
By analyzing the discourse and policies of populist leaders and reviewing their impact in particular countries, these contributors provide a deeper understanding of populism’s democratizing promise as well as the authoritarian tendencies that threaten the foundation of liberal democracy.
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With the election of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela and the subsequent elections of Evo Morales in Bolivia and Rafael Correa in Ecuador, scholarly commentary began to note a return to populism in Latin American politics. In this volume, De la Torre (sociology, U.fo Kentucky) and Arnson (director of the Latin American Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars) present 13 papers for the purposes of explaining the reemergence of populism, placing it in historical context, and exploring the continuities and differences between current leaders and those of the past, such as Argentina's Juan Perón and Brazil's Getúlio Vargas, and even such neoliberal neopopulists as Alberto Fujimori. Country case studies are presented investigating the historical patterns of populism in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela, while other articles focus on more thematic topics, including populism and the party system, the nature of populist discourse and appeals, the social policies of populist regimes, and the characteristics of populist democracy.Distributed in the US by Johns Hopkins University Press. Annotation ©2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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