This thesis deals with issues of power, class, conflict and identity. It deals, more specifically, with the democratic aspirations of peoples in Latin America who for centuries have been quietened and who have sporadically fought back to recover their voice. More specifically, it deals with the 'Pink Tide' phenomenon which has seen a wave of leftist governments elected in the region over the past decade, promising an end to 'savage neoliberalism' and a new era of political, economic and ideologically autonomy. The thesis explores the rise of the Pink Tide in the larger context of the rise and fall of the neoliberal globalisation project integral to U.S. hegemony in the post-Vietnam era. In doing so, it necessarily engages with the dominant analytical and political frames of understanding of the current world order derived from orthodox analyses of International Relations (IR) and International Political Economy (IPE), which propagate the 'common sense' notion that there is no alternative to this order. The thesis critically examines this orthodoxy in order to elucidate its conservative bias whose primary aim, it suggests, is to prevent those quietened from speaking for themselves. Instead, the thesis utilises a multidisciplinary approach, combining themes from IR, IPE, Latin American studies and the Marxian perspectives of Antonio Gramsci in particular, to explore the rise of the Pink Tide by examining its two most prominent members - Venezuela under Hugo Chavez and Brazil under Lula and Dilma Rousseff. The thesis proposes that, from a Gramscian perspective, their emergence can be understood as a response to the organic crisis of neoliberalism in Latin America underway since the late 1990s. In this context the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela represents a counter-hegemonic project that seeks to instil in the Venezuelan people a radical class consciousness, while the Brazilian project under Lula and Rousseff is better understood as a 'passive revolution' whose aim is to resecure consent for the neoliberal order by making significant material and ideological concession to the Brazilian masses. The relationship between these two projects, the thesis proposes, should be understood dialectically, in terms of the potentials for radical politics that emerge out of their interaction - potentials that are especially prominent at the regional level, where both countries are at the forefront of a process of regional integration that aims to make Latin America more politically, economically and ideologically autonomous in the neoliberal world order. All this is particularly significant for the U.S., given the importance of Latin America to its hegemonic status. However, over the past decade, the U.S. has found its ability to impose its will on the region diminishing, as it has become increasingly distracted by challenges to its hegemony from elsewhere around the globe. This situation, the thesis concludes, opens up all kinds of opportunities for a fairer, more prosperous and more democratic Latin America as the 21st century unfolds. -- provided by Candidate.

The authors trace out the development of capitalism and U.S. imperialism in Latin America in the latest phase of this development, from the installation of the new world order of neoliberal globalization in the early 1980s to the present when U.S. imperialism is held at bay, neoliberalism is in decline, and capitalism is in crisis.

Latin America after the Neoliberal Debacle studies the crippling problems that plague civilian democracies in the region. Ximena de la Barra and Richard Dello Buono draw on their extensive first-hand knowledge of Latin America to provide a rich analysis of why the needs of the region are too often put second to powerful foreign interests. In particular, they look at the shortcomings of the neoliberal development model, combining a broad historical overview with analysis of critical issues today. In a region that displays some of the worst social disparities in the world, popular movements have begun to confront the forces of domination. Their struggles for social justice have proposed new political agendas that in some cases dovetail with the new generation of progressive leaders, fueling important social changes. The authors argue that genuine development, free of dependency, can only be achieved in the context of a more profound democratization and new forms of regional integration. This interdisciplinary study will be useful for students, scholars, and general readers concerned with the past, present, and particularly the future of this important region.

The two current trends of democratization and deepening economic liberalization have made Latin American countries a ground for massive defensive mobilization campaigns and have created new sites of popular struggle. In this edited volume on Latin American social movements, original chapters are combined with peer-reviewed articles from the well-regarded journal Mobilization. Each section represents a major theme in Latin American social movement research. Original chapters discuss the Madres de Plaza de Mayo movement in Argentina and the Zapatista movement in Chiapas, Mexico. Also included in the book's coverage of the region's major movements are los piqueteros and antisweatshop labor organizing. This is the first study to focus closely on the related issues of neoliberal globalization, democratization, and the workings of transnational advocacy networks in Latin America.

2009 Best Book, International Political Economy Group of the British International Studies Association This ambitious volume chronicles and analyzes from a critical globalization perspective the social, economic, and political changes sweeping across Latin America from the 1970s through the present day. Sociologist William I. Robinson summarizes his theory of globalization and discusses how Latin America’s political economy has changed as the states integrate into the new global production and financial system, focusing specifically on the rise of nontraditional agricultural exports, the explosion of maquiladoras, transnational tourism, and the export of labor and the import of remittances. He follows with an overview of the clash among global capitalist forces, neoliberalism, and the new left in Latin America, looking closely at the challenges and dilemmas resistance movements face and their prospects for success. Through three case studies—the struggles of the region's indigenous peoples, the immigrants rights movement in the United States, and the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela—Robinson documents and explains the causes of regional socio-political tensions, provides a theoretical framework for understanding the present turbulence, and suggests possible outcomes to the conflicts. Based on years of fieldwork and empirical research, this study elucidates the tensions that globalization has created and shows why Latin America is a battleground for those seeking to shape the twenty-first century’s world order.

While the neoliberal model continues to dominate economic and political life in Latin America, people throughout the region have begun to strategize about how to move beyond this model. Twelve cutting-edge papers investigate how Latin Americans are struggling to articulate a future in which neoliberalism is reconfigured.

This clearly written and comprehensive text examines the uprising of politically and economically marginalized groups in Latin American societies. Specialists in a broad range of disciplines present original research from a variety of case studies in a student-friendly format. Part introductions help students contextualize the essays, highlighting social movement origins, strategies, and outcomes. Thematic sections address historical context, political economy, community-building and consciousness, ethnicity and race, gender, movement strategies, and transnational organizing, making this book useful to anyone studying the wide range of social movements in Latin America.

The 1980s in Latin America saw the implementation of a sweeping programme of economic reforms, either imposed as a condition for securing new loans or to embrace the neoliberal doctrine of structural adjustment, the ideology of a newly formed transnational capitalist class. However, the structural adjustment programme also generated widespread resistance, especially from within the popular sector of civil society. This book analyses both the politics of the adjustment process and the political dynamics of this resistance in Latin America.

This book explores the dynamics of the recent ‘progressive cycle’ in Latin American politics, associated with a red and pink tide of regime change. With this cycle of centre-left regimes oriented towards an alternative post-neoliberal form of development now coming to an end, coinciding with the end of a ‘primary commodities boom’ (the demand for natural resources exported in primary form on the world market), the authors seek to explore the dynamics of the transition from a progressive cycle of regimes oriented towards the search for a more inclusive form of development towards what appears to be another swing in the pendulum of electoral politics towards the far right and a return to neoliberal orthodoxy. Within the vortex of forces of change pushing towards both the Left and the Right, Latin America lies at the centre of ongoing heated theoretical and political debates as to how to bring about a more inclusive and sustainable form of post-neoliberal and post-capitalist development. Latin America in the Vortex of Social Change crucially aims to cut through these debates and explore the dynamics of the forces of change at work in the current conjuncture of capitalist development. With reference to a theoretical framework based on the interaction of three different forms of capitalism (capitalism as usual, extractive capitalism, narco-capitalism), the authors proceed to an analysis of the development and resistance dynamics of the development process that is unfolding on the Latin American political landscape. The book will appeal to scholars of political sociology and political theory with an interest in the political economy of development and Latin American affairs.