The Triumph of Politics offers a comparative and historical
interpretation of Venezuela’s Chavez, Bolivia’s Morales and
Ecuador’s Correa – South America’s most prominent ’21st
century socialists’. It argues that the claims of these 21st
century socialists should be taken seriously even though not
necessarily at face value.
The authors show how the consensual market oriented policymaking
that characterized almost all of South America in the 1990s has now
given way to something quite different. Polarization and intense
political conflict have returned to much of the region. Although
the Left has not always been the beneficiary of this changed
pattern, the ’21st century’ governments of Chavez, Morales
and Correa have been agenda setters. The questions raised by their
emergence, style of governance and policy orientations resonate
across Latin America and beyond. It is likely that the kind of
politics with which they have been associated will be influential
in the region for quite some time to come.
Table of Content
Acknowledgements vi
List of Abbreviations vii
Introduction: The Triumph of Politics in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador 1
1 The Military and the Rise of the Left 13
2 The Politics of Mass Protests 41
3 Populism and the Return of the Political 68
4 Personalism, Plebiscites and Institutions 102
5 The Politics of Oil and Gas: Twenty-First Century
Socialism in Practice 123
6 The Fault Lines of Latin American Integration 149
Conclusion 174
Notes 185
References 194
Index 215
About the author
George Philip is Professor in Latin American Politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Francisco Panizza is Reader in Latin American Politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science.