Latin America's Radical Left

Steve Ellner is professor at the Universidad de Oriente, Anzoátegui Campus, Venezuela.

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.

• Foreword: The Global Significance of Latin America's New Radical LeftWilliam I. RobinsonIntroduction: Complexities of the Twenty-First-Century Radical Left in PowerSteve EllnerPart I: Theoretical, Historical and International Background Chapter 1: The Radical Left's Turbulent Transitions: An OverviewRoger BurbachChapter 2: Brief Hypotheses on the State, Democracy, and Revolution in Latin America TodayDiana RabyChapter 3: Institutional Conflict and the Bolivarian Revolution: Venezuela’s Negotiation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas Marcel NelsonPart II: The Twenty-First-Century Radical Left in Power in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador Chapter 4: Social and Political Diversity and the Democratic Road to Change in VenezuelaSteve EllnerChapter 5: “Bad Left Government” versus “Good Left Social Movements”? Creative Tensions within Bolivia’s Process of ChangeFederico FuentesChapter 6: Rafael Correa and Social Movements in EcuadorMarc BeckerPart III: Influences of the Twenty-First-Century Radical Left in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and CubaChapter 7: The Twenty-First-Century Road to Socialism in El Salvador and Nicaragua: Making Sense of Apparent ParadoxesHector Perla Jr. and Héctor M. Cruz-FelicianoChapter 8: Cuba’s New Socialism: Different Visions Shaping Current ChangesCamila Piñeiro HarneckerPart IV: Economy, Society, and MediaChapter 9: The Political Economy of Social Production Companies in VenezuelaThomas PurcellChapter 10: Constituent Moments, Constitutional Processes: Social Movements and the New Latin American LeftGeorge Ciccariello-MaherChapter 11: The Good, the Bad, and the Benevolent Interventionist: U.S. Press and Intellectual Distortions of the Latin American LeftKevin YoungChapter 12: Concluding Observations: The Twenty-First-Century Radical Left and the Latin American Road to Change Steve Ellner