The success of left-leaning presidential candidates in Latin America during the 2000s triggered interest in relationships between progressive governments and the social movements that fuel their rise to power and that challenge them to govern in redistributive fashion. Contributors to this collection of essays on these and more recent iterations of the ‘Left turns’ exhibit a consensus that progressive governments in the region owe their rise to power to social movements, and that those social movements should be central to shaping the ensuing policy agendas. They also consider how emancipatory social movements resist conservative backlashes and right-leaning governments that sometimes follow periods of progressive governance.
Following an introductory chapter by co-editor Steve Ellner, who situates the volume in scholarship on social movements and trajectories of the Left in the region, the book is divided into four parts. The first is thematic, considering labour, rural and feminist movements as foundations of progressive governments. Chapter 2, by Federico Rossi, offers an especially helpful theoretical frame, drawing on his work conceptualising a second phase of incorporation in Latin American political systems to encompass mobilised informal sector workers and other historically excluded collective actors. The next three parts address clusters of countries, grouped according to the centrality of social movements in Left governance or their struggles in settings where counter-hegemonic forces were not part of ruling coalitions. There follows a synthetic conclusion by co-editor Ronaldo Munck that seeks to shed theoretical light on concepts of autonomy and the implications of socialist movements operating simultaneously within and against the capitalist state.
The book is derived from a special issue of Latin American Perspectives and is part of a ‘Latin American perspectives in the classroom’ series. The structure is well suited for use in advanced undergraduate and MA level courses in Latin American studies or social movements. The country chapters vary in method and theoretical foundations but are generally empirically solid and shaped by relevant English- and Spanish-language literature. A common thread is a hope – framed in most of the book as an expectation – that progressive governments privilege emancipatory movements, and disappointment over the frequent instances in which in practice this turns out not to be the case.
Tensions between movements that give rise to progressive governments and the ways in which the latter operate in practice are a recurrent theme throughout the book. Yet the contributors’ normative priorities sometimes obscure more than they illuminate. Should maintaining alliances with social movements be among the foremost objectives of progressive governments, or might instead their focus more appropriately be on broadening their bases of support through efficient provision of public goods, clean governance, respect for civil liberties and the like? This collection decidedly takes the former view.
The universe of social movements portrayed as relevant to progressive governments is limited to those on the Left of the political spectrum. Yet some of the most impactful emergent forces in Latin American politics are the myriad right-wing social movements that have obstructed progressive governments and nourished coalitions that have derailed them. This is perhaps most evident around matters of sexuality, family and crime, where reactionary social movements have gained potency in recent years and severely constrained opportunities for progressive change. This component of the social movement landscape receives no attention in the collection.
Even confining analysis to cases categorised as on the Left, readers may wonder what boundaries demarcate the twenty-first century Left in the region. The book's normalising treatment of Daniel Ortega's Nicaragua fits awkwardly, to say the least, in a universe of cases that might be united by commitment to emancipation. Similarly, tensions within the realm of subaltern subjects, as opposed to between governments and movements, are not consistently addressed head-on. How do we balance competing claims of Indigenous communities championing protection of sacred lands, on the one hand, and urban informal sector workers aspiring to pensions, urban transportation infrastructure and well-remunerated public sector employment funded by the rents from natural resource extraction, on the other? It is in vexing questions such as these that the complexities of interactions between progressive governments and social movements – with demands that are heterogeneous and sometimes incompatible with one another – come to the fore.
Beyond the volume's normative assumption that the degree of convergence between progressive governments and social movements defines success or failure, some readers of the book will chafe at occasional lapses into ideological drivel. Perhaps most egregious, for this reviewer, was the reference in Chapter 8 to Hugo Chávez succumbing to cancer, ‘which some speculate may have been induced by Washington’ – the sole citation being from a discredited conspiracy theorist. Such peeves notwithstanding, the collection offers comprehensive coverage of social mobilisations from the Left and useful insights regarding state–social movement interactions, both of which are sure to remain prominent features of the Latin American landscape for many years to come.
