Latin American Populism: historical context and modern trends

Abstract

The authors show that the historical and political role of populism in Latin American countries is an extremely relevant, but at the same time complex research and practical topic, which has been causing sharp discussions in the expert community for more than a decade. This is due to the inconsistency and ambiguity of populism as a social phenomenon, its dynamic and variable nature, which constantly puts forward new research tasks to scientists. Latin America is the birthplace of modern populism. Here, as in no other region of the world, populism has long become an integral part of social landscape and a specific feature of political processes. Dozens of prominent populist figures headed governments in most states of the region, were the creators of leading political parties and movements, left an indelible mark on Latin American history. Up to this day, populists of different beliefs largely form a vector of socio-economic development of an entire region. All this determines relevance of the article, and its main goal is to explore the topic of Latin American populism, its ideological pedigree and perspectives on the basis of new knowledge and phenomena. The novelty of the work is the interpretation of ideology and practice of populism, based on the methods of historical research and comparative analysis, which makes it possible to identify features of populist regimes in Latin America. The main conclusion made by the authors is the assertion that it is impossible to use old populist methods to respond to new challenges that await the peoples of Latin America in the future.

Keywords

• populism
• latin america
• political struggle
• populist regimes
• competitive authoritarianism
• “covid populism”