The Left Turn

In the article, “Latin America’s ‘Left Turn,'” Steven Levitsky and Kenneth Roberts explore the roots of the spread and success of Left-leaning political parties in Latin America in the late 1990s and early 2000’s. The authors credit two economic events, one a bust and the other a boom.

The economic crisis of 1998-2002 sent Latin America spiraling into poverty. While the decade of neoliberal reforms had stemmed the inflation of the 80s economic downturn, these reforms had also stripped down Latin American states’ social welfare systems, which were unable to keep people on their feet during this new economic crisis. The failure of Right and Center-Right parties to cope with this crisis played into the hands of Left-wing parties and the success of the Left during the 1998-2002 crisis is a testament to the intense desire for change.

After the bust of the economic crisis came the commodity price boom. In 2002, the price of commodities soared, which led to massive economic growth in Latin America. The states that had elected Left-wing governments now had the finances to fulfill their commitments to combating economic inequality and could implement large-scale redistribution initiatives. Left-wing parties could now, as Levitsky and Roberts write, “actually govern on the left.”

The success of the Left was not simply a backlash to neoliberalism, as is commonly argued, but the result of a confluence of economic, as well as political and global, factors. Indeed, the failure of neoliberal policies to protect Latin American states from the 1998-2002 economic crisis can be seen as a large factor in the Left Turn, the post-2002 commodity price boom helps explain why the Pink Tide leaders were reelected. Without the funds to deliver their campaign promises, which the commodities boom provided, the Left would have most likely been voted out of office, just like the Right and Center-Right parties that they had replaced.