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Trends and Counter-trends in the Fight for a More Egalitarian Society in Latin America
Abstract Submissions Closed
RC02 Economy and Society (host committee)
Language: Spanish and English
Session Type: Oral
Poverty and inequality declined substantially in Latin America between 2000 and 2015, particularly under certain left-wing governments. Although neoliberal strategies were not completely abandoned, social and economic policies were introduced to reconstruct welfare and developmental institutions. Foreign relations were diversified away from the United States and organizations were created to advance cooperation among South American countries, leading to broadly acknowledged democratic achievements. Recently, however, Latin American transnational elites have organized a counter-movement, often with certain popular support. Strategies were implemented to undercut the legitimacy of left-wing regimes, including an ideological attack on the so-called populist and charismatic political elites. As a result, they have been brought down by right-wing forces entrenched not only in political parties, but also in organizations encompassing key sectors of the population and civil society. Poverty and inequality trends have thus stagnated or reversed, retrenching racialised, gendered, and class-inflected patterns of privilege and exclusion.
The present session aims at understanding the origins and scope of the democratic accomplishments progressive forces in South America achieved, the limitations and failures they could not overcome, and the reaction they elicited from right-wing forces, both inside and outside the countries. We particularly invite contributions that explore the fall and the recent rise in Latin America’s social and economic inequalities, in which race, class, and gender emerge as mutually-enforcing, structuring factors. While we encourage the use of intersectionality as an analytical tool, we are open to other approaches to these problems.