The Left Turn: Rise of Ethnopopulism

One of the readings this week is written by Raúl L. Madrid, and the subject is the rise of ethnopopulism in Latin America. The goal of this article was to show that classic exclusionary appeals of populist and ethnic parties were largely unsuccessful in Latin America due to the fact that ethnic polarization is low and the lines between ethnic identities are blurred. Generally ethnic parties have strong policies of exclusion based on ethnicity, but in Latin America any ethnic party that experienced success did so by developing inclusive policies. Madrid makes the case that current academic literature on populist and ethnic parties simply cannot account for the rise of ethnopopulist parties.

The history of exclusionary policies from ethnic parties is very strong. Ethnic parties being comprised largely of one ethnicity tend to concentrate on mobilizing members of their own ethnic group. Here madrid cites another scholar, Horowitz, “recognizing that it cannot count on defections from members of the other ethnic group, has the incentive to solidify the support of its own group.” In summary of this point, ethnic parties assume that no member of other ethnic groups will join them so they will commit all energy and resources into mobilizing the members of their own ethnic group by exaggerating the threat posed by members of other ethnic groups. This is assuming that individuals have a single ethnic identity and the boundaries separating ethnic groups are clear. However, scholars have shown that ethnic identification is fluid and individuals often have multiple ethnic identities. Wherever ethnic identification is fluid, exclusionary tactics would alienate those people whose ethnic identities comprise both the included and excluded groups, thereby being counterproductive.

Madrid takes a look at the most successful ethnopopulist party to date: the Movimiento al Socialismo in Bolivia. Madrid argues that one of the main factors of MAS’s success was its inclusive ethnopopulist appeal, acknowledging the fact that the strengthening of indigenous consciousness and the growing disenchantment of traditional parties and their record of governance also played a roll in the party’s success. With the majority of the indigenous population of Bolivia being fragmented and the low levels of ethnic polarization an inclusive political party had a very large pool of voters it would attract. MAS also used some populist strategies. First, it adopted an antiestablishment message. Second MAS adopted redistributive, nationalist, and state interventionist policies. Finally, MAS relied heavily on the appeal of its leader Evo Morales. With these policies people of many different ethnic backgrounds flocked to the party.

In recent years leftist leaders have won important electoral victories in countries from Central America to the Southern Cone. The reasons for this are the same that led to MAS’s great success; disenchantment with existing parties and their policies.