Latin American ?Populism?: debates, features and limits to comparisons

GUSTAVO SANTILLÁN

Beijing

Congreso; VI Foro de Diálogo de Alto Nivel Académico China-América Latina ?Transformación Estructural y Perspectivas de la Relación Sino-latinoamericana?; 2017

Instituto de Estudios Latinoamericanos/Academia China de Ciencias Sociales

The word ?Populism? goes in quotation marks on our title since, in spite of being a concept consciously structured by the Russian narodnik movement during the second half of the XIXTh. Century, and having been also the denomination of the subsequent Populist US political party (see Venturi, 1960; Zinn, 1999: 213-220; Vilas, 1995: 11-37), the notion was later depicted in vague terms as a generic theoretical category which included the Fascist European movements. (Payne, 1995: 465) It also has become a major concern in the current North American and European politics (see Albertazzi and MacDonald, 2008). Populism was even related with Maoism. (Meisner, 2007: 64-67, 321-317, 339-344; Joseph, 2014: 160-161) Based on this brief analysis, and given the extension and ambiguity of the word ?Populism?, we will only maintain it as a concept on mere provisional basis. We will make use of the concept as an expedient to answer the following questions, in which our work will be focused: there is a Latin American Populism? what its features are? And, finally, what subjects of comparison are adequate to the specific-historical phenomenon?These questions will be addressed through the analysis of three cases: Argentina under the first two Peronist governments (1946-1955), Brazil under the Presidencies of Getúlio Vargas Vargas (1930- 1945, 1951-1954) and Mexico under the Presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas (1934-1940). In each of the three national cases, we will review the following aspects: origins of Latin American Populism, structural (economic) limits of Populism, critical exam of some proposed international comparisons,and features of the Populist parties. In the final section, we advance some conclusions based on this examination.