The Left Turn
For my last blog post, I will be discussing the so-called “Left turn” that Latin America experienced in the 90’s. Not unlike my previous posts, the left turn discussed in this weeks reading is an interesting counterpoint to the current political climate where the West in on the verge of a far right turn. The left turn in the Latin American region is an interesting phase because it was right at the end of the Cold War where the largest far left experiment, the USSR, was on the verge of failure. Indeed, the Left turn was not communist in fashion, but a series of policy experiments about social welfare and increasing equality. Similar to Latin America, these leftist policies found their way to Europe, where a focus on social welfare led to many different liberal policies. As we are seeing now, there is a far-right reaction to these leftist policies which threaten to overturn the post-Cold War world order. This includes several key far right victories, namely the success of the Brexit campaign and the victory of the Trump campaign. This far right outburst is seemingly everywhere except Latin America. I think this could be attributed to the relative newness of leftist leadership. Likewise, I think those in Latin American nations have more recent experiences with populist type leaders which would more or less inoculate them to populist appeals. This is contrasted with the United States not having any (or limited) experience with truly populist leaders. It has also been some time for European nations as well. It will be interesting to see how long this far right turn will last and if its effects will become institutionalized like the far left turn has become in Latin America.
Interesting take on what the future holds for both left and right leaning turns for both Latin America and the world. I think the point you made with the most significance was the reasoning behind why Latin America is continuing to experience left, socialist governments as compared to the rest of the world. Because Latin America was always “behind” other countries, did they never have the time to experience such a left turn before? Because both Europe and the US have had times of strong socialist roots, does that explain why now their is a returning presence of right-focused ideology? Does that mean Latin America is next in turning to the right? Another interesting question to think about is what could bring a shift to either kind of ideology? Maybe some kind of world event or shift in a country’s government could bring a giant change to whether a country is leaning left or right; like a debt crisis or the election of an unfavorable president.