Department of Politics, Languages & International Studies

End of the left turn in Latin America? Political dynamics of the post-transition

This comparative project will help us understand the practices and dynamics of socio-political actors shaping the latest protests in Argentina and Brazil.

This project is in progress. The start date was 1 August 2016. The end date will be 1 December 2017.

Project budget: £25,000

Shaping politics through social movements

Increasingly in the Western world, social movements play a crucial part in the political struggle as their actions tend to express new and old unfulfilled demands and grievances associated to economic, social, cultural or political inequalities. In Latin America in particular, it has been the actions of social movements, more than of political parties, which have shaped and regulated the political processes defining the dynamic and meaning of young democracies in the context of the post-transition.

The ceaseless conflict between social movements and the status quo has tended to influence the formation of a ‘common political sense’, an established consensus governing the relationships between the ruler and the sovereign.

The analysis of how this consensus is forged and disputed today in countries such as Brazil and Argentina is crucial because it sheds light on the ancient question of who governs, that is, who influences the formation of the mainstream language that decides the meaning of contentious words such as:

  • development
  • democracy
  • equality
  • the market
  • the state

It also influences what is perceived as:

  • fair and unfair
  • acceptable or unacceptable
  • tolerable and intolerable
  • inevitable or avoidable
  • possible and impossible

Key demonstrations

In early June 2013, the Free Pass Movement (Movimento Passe Livre) staged a demonstration in São Paulo against a price hike on buses. The following days saw the biggest protest wave since the student mobilisation that led to the impeachment of President Collor de Mello in 1992. Grievances included improvements in Brazil’s deficient public transport network, demands for better healthcare and the reform of a corrupt and dysfunctional political system. Since then, Dilma has been suspended from office and is currently being impeached following a process opened in late 2015.

In March 2008, a few months after Cristina Kirchner took presidential office in Argentina, the four largest farmers’ unions halted the commercialisation of grain due to the decision to raise export taxes on soybeans and sunflowers.

On November 8 2012, thousands took to the streets of Buenos Aires and other cities in Argentina to protest against ‘restrictions on buying US dollars’, ‘corruption’ and ‘Cristina’s re-election’, in a movement that became known as 8N.

Since then, Kirchnerismo lost the first presidential election in 13 years in late 2015 in the hands of the right-wing coalition led by Mauricio Macri.

In addition to these protest movements primarily emerging ‘outside’ Kirchnerismo in Argentina and lulismo in Brazil, there were also significant expressions of dissent from within these dominant political movements that contributed to galvanise a sentiment of discontent, amplify the scale of the protests and finally consolidate the development of new cycle with lasting political effects.

The project focuses on these major episodes of protest in Argentina and Brazil during 2011-2016 which reveal its own complexity as:

they seem to anticipate the end of a political cycle of the left
in principle, they seem different from the protest movements associated with the opposition to austerity measures in the global North (Occupy, Indignados)

The left in Latin America founded its political project in the early 2000s in opposition to neoliberalism which has been largely credited with the promotion of monetary policies and public spending cuts.

Project aims

This research aims to determine what sort of discursive and organisational changes have contributed to de-stabilise the anti-neoliberal consensus underpinning the narratives of governments of the left in the region.

Working hypotheses

  1. Since 2011 the left governing coalitions show signs of exhaustion in terms of policy innovation and this impacts its articulatory power.
  2. The decline of articulation ‘from above’ is filled by the rise of alternative organisations ‘from below’, expressing a new complexity of demands, which the left coalitions could not reabsorb. This in turn paved the way for the opening of a new protest cycle which contributes to put an end to the left turn in the region.

Research method

The project utilises qualitative and quantitative research methods.

Project leaders

Graduate and Postgraduate Research Associates from University of Buenos Aires (Argentina)

  • Lucía Carnelli, Sociology (Participation and Political Mobilisation cluster at Gino Gemani Institute)
  • Tomás Gold, Political Science (National Scientific and Technical Research Council - CONICET)
  • Josefina Furfaro, Political Science (Participation and Political Mobilisation cluster at Gino Gemani Institute)
  • Lucio Fernández Moujan, Sociology (National University of General San Martín)
  • Belén Morris, Sociology (National University of La Plata)
  • Florencia Posnik, Public Policy (National University of General San Martín)

Graduate and Postgraduate Research Associates from University of Campinas (Brazil)

  • Dr Ana Claudia Chaves Teixeira (Participation, Social Movements and Collective Action cluster)
  • Ricardo Novaes Serra (Participation, Social Movements and Collective Action cluster)
  • Gustavo Casasanta Firmino (Participation, Social Movements and Collective Action cluster)
  • Ana Clara Rocha (Participation, Social Movements and Collective Action cluster)
  • Jeniffer Torres Tavares (Participation, Social Movements and Collective Action cluster)
  • Leonardo jenn Joanes (Participation, Social Movements and Collective Action cluster)

Expected outputs

  • A comparative, quantitative, database on social protest episodes that occurred in Brazil and Argentina over the period 2011-2016 (it will include episodes and a small number of variables).
  • Qualitative in-depth interviews to both key informants, protest organisers and activists of left and right-wing organisations will be conducted (a total of 40 interviews from both countries).
  • An open symposium in the city of Bath in March or April 2017 to share results and analysis.

Project phases

International workshop in Buenos Aires

This phase starts 1 August to 1 November 2016

Phase budget: £10,000

A workshop will be held in Buenos Aires between 14-15 September 2016.

The aim of this workshop is to:

  • discuss what the left turn meant in Latin America, with particular focus on Kirchnerismo and Lulismo
  • debate the organisations and social movements that matter for the research project
  • refine the research methods approach and instruments of data collection (the database and questionnaires)
  • discuss advantages and disadvantages of existing theoretical approaches in relation to the research question

Workshop in Bath

1 January to 1 June 2017

Phase budget: £15,000

A workshop will be held in Bath in Spring 2017.

The aim of this workshop is to:

  • discuss the analysis of the data
  • present research results
  • advance working papers for publication

Enquiries

For enquiries about this project you can contact Dr Juan Pablo Ferrero.