Introduction
Left Turns? Progressive Parties, Insurgent Movements, and Alternative Policies in Latin America was an Exploratory Workshop funded by a grant from the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of British Columbia awarded to Principal Invstigators Jon Beasley-Murray, French, Hispanic, & Italian Studies and Maxwell Cameron, Political Science.
Left-leaning Latin American parties and movements have enjoyed a series of successes in the past few years. The election of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, Luis Ignacio “Lula” da Silva in Brazil, Néstor Kirchner in Argentina, and Tabaré Vásquez’s Uruguay victory all suggested a trend. Most recently, Evo Morales was elected president of Bolivia, while Socialist Michelle Bachelet won in Chile.
These successes have driven speculation about a “left turn” or “pink tide” moving Latin America away from neoliberal economics and US influence, toward alternative models of democracy and development and a new desire for cultural and political experimentation. But the idea of a unitary trend misses the diversity of movements and parties in the region. It also begs the question: how are left-wing governments different? How much turns on the Left?
