Globalization and the Rise of the Left
in Latin America
Princeton, NJ | December 6 - 8, 2007

Organized by
The Program in Ethics, Culture, and Economic Development
of the
Witherspoon Institute

Cosponsored by
The Woodrow Wilson School of School of Public and International Affairs
Princeton University

The resurgence of the Left in Latin America is a development that has received far too little serious attention, apart from oil concerns, in most media and many academic outlets. What forms of political organization have fueled the electoral success of the Left in, for example, Venezuela? The Witherspoon Institute has convened a group of speakers and discussants from across the ideological spectrum to share their thoughts about what drives the Lefts resurgence. These participants comprise academics, politicians, and policy-makers from both Latin America and the United States; all groups stand to benefit substantially from the others insights.

Papers and plenary sessions will parse the conferences overarching question of the identity, origin, and future of the Left(s) currently active in Latin America. Are the governments currently in power expanding or contracting the economic freedoms and democratic institutions that have been built in Latin America over the last few decades? The variety of experience in different countries points to a complex answer.

In Chile, for example, numerous left-leaning parties, notably the PPD (Partido por la Democracia) and PS (Partido Socialista), as well as the Greens and the Communists, have spent the seventeen years since the end of military rule organizing marginal voters but so has the right-leaning UDI (Union Democrtica Independiente). Because Chilean parties of all stripes have been involved in building popular support, the Left, which currently holds presidential power, must cooperate with parties of the Right to maintain their own popular and electoral support. By contrast, in other part of Latin America such as Venezuela, the Right has not maintained popular support, allowing the Left to enjoy much larger electoral gains and to dominate the national conversation.

In other countries, such as Argentina, the Left has regained its popularity because the public identifies market-oriented reforms with failure; in turn voters embrace more populist and statist solutions to poverty. Chilean and Mexican voters have not hesitated, however, to support more centrist or even rightist parties when market solutions have stimulated economic growth. In some instances the Left has successfully responded to the political viability of market solutions by offering moderated New Left platforms that seeks to work within the framework of global economic competition and respect for democratic institutions. This is the case with Brazils Lula and with the Concertacin candidates of Chile. These moderated platforms contrast with those of Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Nestor Kirchner of Argentina, and Evo Morales of Bolivia, whose nationalizing of major industries and concentration of power in the executive branch resemble more classically populist agendas. Clearly, the Left(s) of Latin America cannot be understood in isolation, and the conference will therefore attend to the question of a New Right. Seeking to break old associations between the traditional Right and military regimes, this new movement involves young intellectuals and politicians confident in the ability of democratic and market-oriented reforms to solve the regions economic problems. The examples of El Salvador and Mexico offer opportunities to consider how this New Right reaches out to the poorest sections of the population through movements like the National Youth Institute of Mexicos PAN (Partido de la Accin Nacional).