Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Latin America's Radical Left: Challenges and Complexities of Political Power in the Twenty-First Century (Latin American Perspectives in the Classroom)

This timely book explores the unique challenges facing the left in Latin America today. The contributors offer clear and comprehensive assessments of the difficult conditions and conflicting forces that have brought to power the current leftist regimes in Latin American and the Caribbean and are shaping their development. Avoiding the widely accepted but simplistic dichotomy of "good" and "bad" left or democratic and antidemocratic left, the book first sets the theoretical and historical context for understanding the rise of the left in the region. It then provides case studies of the radical left in power in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador and its influence in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Cuba. Thematic chapters consider social and labor movements and debates over problems arising from the democratic transition to socialism. The book points to concrete circumstances in which theoretical issues related to reform and change have played out in nations where the left is in power. These include prioritization of social over economic objectives, the role of the state in the democratic road to socialism, and ecological as opposed to developmentalist strategies. Finally, the book examines the opposition to radical governments in power coming not only from the right but also from movements to their left. With its balanced and thorough assessment, this study will provide readers with a deep and nuanced understanding of the complexity of the political, economic, and sociocultural reality of contemporary Latin America and the Caribbean. Contributions by: Marc Becker, Roger Burbach, George Ciccariello-Maher, Héctor M. Cruz-Feliciano, Steve Ellner, Federico Fuentes, Marcel Nelson, Hector Perla Jr., Camila Piñeiro Harnecker, Thomas Purcell, Diana Raby, William I. Robinson, and Kevin Young Review [An] excellent entry into understanding current developments in the region. . . . This group of very experienced Latin Americanists has the tools and knowledge to provide unusually clear understandings of what is going on, and they convey it well.--Z-Net, Global Research A valuable contribution to the growing literature on the left in Latin America. It reappraises the radical left and redeems it from marginalized status in the political science literature, and from critiques of it as simply populist and authoritarian. . . . A masterful and successful effort to analyze and defend the radical left.--Z Magazine Ably edited by long-time Venezuela scholar Steve Ellner, a strength of this volume on Latin America's left governments is its willingness to allow for critical disagreement. The twelve contributors debate many of the principal issues raised by experiences...in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Cuba, Nicaragua and El Salvador, as well as addressing similar topics more broadly across the region. The book is rich in analysis about whether international conditions and regional levels of economic development allow for the construction of socialism; about the role of the traditional proletariat in the struggle; and, in a number of essays, about whether the left should concentrate on contesting state power or whether it should focus on increasing its influence within civil society. These issues have long been fraught among leftists and so the fierce--though respectful--debates among the book's contributors, come as no surprise. . . . This volume succeeds admirably in defining the issues confronting the left--both activist and academic.--NACLA Report on the Americas Aimed primarily at university students, this collection of essays analyses the phenomenon of what the authors call the 'radical democratic Latin American Left in power'. . . .The book offers some useful and varied insights into the complex dynamics of a rapidly-changing region. . . .by focusing on the challenges faced by current leftist regimes in Latin America, the book provides a valuable opportunity to look beyond the experiences of individual countries at the broad