Latin America's Radical Left

Nine of the 12 sections of Latin America's Radical Left, edited by Ellner are revised articles from the May 2013 issue of Latin American Perspectives. Ellner summarizes each section to make the material classroom friendly. The overall intellectual framework comes from Jorge Castañeda's distinction between a 'good' and 'bad' Left in Latin America. Castañeda argued that the 'good' Left was exemplified by the democratic and economically responsible governments of Chile, Uruguay, and Brazil, led by reformed communists and Marxists. Populists such as Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, Evo Morales in Bolivia, and Andrés Manuel López-Obrador in Mexico represented the 'bad' Left. Several authors of articles in this book identify with Castañeda's 'bad' Left to the extent that it represents popular movements in each country. . . .Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, and professional collections. * CHOICE *
Steve Ellner’s, Latin America’s Radical Left: Challenges and Complexities of Political Power in the Twenty-first Century, is an engaging and pertinent read for those within Latin American Studies and beyond. The book discusses all the central themes which we might expect from a book on the radical left including social revolution, social movement mobilisation and radical redistributive policy. However unlike previous work on the left, the authors move beyond the stagnant ‘two lefts’ thesis and instead provide a more nuanced discussion on the left in the region. . . .Ellner has compiled an impressive array of established and burgeoning scholars as contributors. . . .Ultimately, this is a highly engaging book and an enjoyable to read. For instance, the authors themselves often engage with contentions made by their fellow contributors, thus giving the impression that the debate is actively occurring in real-time and at your fingertips. Regardless of your position on the ‘two lefts’ thesis you are likely to find yourself commenting aloud, underlining passages and tabbing particular pages as you participate in the active discussion flowing throughout the book. * E-International Relations *
At once challenging, complicated, fascinating, and useful to any Latin Americanist interested in today’s (and tomorrow’s) events. * Latin American Perspectives *
Aimed primarily at university students, this collection of essays analyses the phenomenon of what the authors call the 'radical democratic Latin American Left in power'. . . .The book offers some useful and varied insights into the complex dynamics of a rapidly-changing region. . . .by focusing on the challenges faced by current leftist regimes in Latin America, the book provides a valuable opportunity to look beyond the experiences of individual countries at the broader social, economic and political forces at play in the region. . . .Rather than merely critiquing gaps between state discourse and practice, as some accounts do, the book highlights the structural factors that condition the trajectories of leftist governments. . . .All in all, readers of this book will gain a sense of the complex political, economic and socio-cultural realities of contemporary Latin America, as well as the dilemmas and challenges faced by the region’s leftist governments. * Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography *
Convinced that we cannot change the world by ignoring the issue of power, the authors focus their attention on the trials and errors of Latin American leaders elected in the 2000s. * Le Monde Diplomatique *
A valuable contribution to the growing literature on the left in Latin America. It reappraises the radical left and redeems it from marginalized status in the political science literature, and from critiques of it as simply populist and authoritarian. . . . A masterful and successful effort to analyze and defend the radical left. * Z Magazine *
In Latin America’s Radical Left: Challenges and Complexities of Political Power in the Twenty-first Century, Steve Ellner attempts to provide much-needed context and nuance to our understanding of the continent’s so-called ‘radical left’. . . .The book’s contributors make the respectable claim that to clump these diverse leaders into the categories of good and bad is both overly simplistic and counterproductive. . . . Ellner’s essential thesis is that contemporary leftist governments face more significant challenges than their historical counterparts, given their socially and ideologically heterogeneous bases, and the demands of democracy and globalisation. This important point, coupled with the essential questions raised throughout, make this volume a thought-provoking, relevant read. * Survival: Global Politics and Strategy *
Ably edited by long-time Venezuela scholar Steve Ellner, a strength of this volume on Latin America’s left governments is its willingness to allow for critical disagreement. The twelve contributors debate many of the principal issues raised by experiences...in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Cuba, Nicaragua and El Salvador, as well as addressing similar topics more broadly across the region. The book is rich in analysis about whether international conditions and regional levels of economic development allow for the construction of socialism; about the role of the traditional proletariat in the struggle; and, in a number of essays, about whether the left should concentrate on contesting state power or whether it should focus on increasing its influence within civil society. These issues have long been fraught among leftists and so the fierce—though respectful—debates among the book’s contributors, come as no surprise. . . . This volume succeeds admirably in defining the issues confronting the left—both activist and academic. * NACLA Report on the Americas *
Written by scholars sympathetic to but critical of the project of so-called twenty-first-century socialism, the book provides significant insights about Latin America’s radical left in power. It will be useful for advanced undergraduates and postgraduate courses on contemporary Latin American politics and for anybody interested in highly original and complex processes of change. * Latin American Politics and Society *
[An] excellent entry into understanding current developments in the region. . . . This group of very experienced Latin Americanists has the tools and knowledge to provide unusually clear understandings of what is going on, and they convey it well. * Z-Net, Global Research *
Latin America’s Radical Left, edited by Steve Ellner, is a collection of articles that examine developments especially in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela. Is this socialism, is it anti-neo-liberalism, is it social democracy: what is it?. . . .This group of very experienced Latin Americanists has the tools and knowledge to provide unusually clear understandings of what is going on, and they convey it well. . . . This volume is an excellent place to begin—and has the added advantage of authors knowing of these other cases taking place at the same, so there is a comparative consciousness that makes most of these contributions even more valuable than just the subject immediately at hand. * New Politics *
The essays in Latin America’s Radical Left deserve much praise for the number of issues they intelligently tackle. . . . [They] help deepen our understanding of the challenges faced by left-wing and centre-left administrations in Latin America. * Journal of Iberian and Latin American Research (JILAR) *
This collection’s most distinctive feature is its focus on the so-called bad Left governments in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela, which Ellner labels the twenty-first century Latin American radical Left, or 21LRL. . . .Collectively, the chapters do an excellent job of explaining the dilemmas and challenges facing the 21LRL, including the combination of representative and radical democracy, the difficulties of synthesizing pragmatic, economically efficient policies with popular mobilization and progressive social programs, the embrace of multiple social groups rather than prioritizing specific class actors, and the corresponding need to manage often severe internal differences. . . .On the whole, the essays in this volume provide a good contrast to Castañeda’s two Left theses and the mainstream social scientists and journalists who subscribe to it. * Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies *
Historians will be happy to know that this collection is not unmoored from twentieth century experiences; contributors offer comparisons with past social democratic and communist regimes, although principally to illuminate contrasts. . . . This volume is designed for classroom use. Its comparative organization, including introductory summaries for each part, makes it easy to divide up into assignments, and students will find themes echoed across both more theoretical and empirical chapters. Its overt stance in favor of these socialistic experiences would make an ideal pairing with work from other perspectives. * Hispanic American Historical Review *
Steve Ellner is one of our most insightful interpreters of Latin American politics, and in his new collection he brings together a diverse set of perspectives to assess the successes and setbacks of the region's governing militants. This is an important book that should be required reading for policy makers and students alike. -- Greg Grandin, New York University
This collection of essays sheds new light on the heterogeneous social interests and political currents that have come together under radical leftist governments in twenty-first-century Latin America. Ellner and his collaborators not only compare the radical left in contemporary Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador, but also explain what makes this new left different from historical models of communism, populism, and social democracy. Rich in theoretical insights as well as empirical analysis, this book is a major contribution to our understanding of popular movements and political alternatives in contemporary Latin America. -- Kenneth M. Roberts, Cornell University