Political Change, Social Mobilisation, and Democratic Contestation in Latin America

Abstract

This panel examines political change in Latin America through the interplay of social mobilisation, electoral behaviour, and ideological realignment. The papers analyse how critical moments of contestation reshape political narratives, party systems, and patterns of participation. Several contributions focus on the legacies of mass mobilisation, exploring electoral behaviour following the 2019 Chilean social uprising and the role of social groups and protest during regime transformations. Others adopt a longer-term perspective, tracing critical junctures from re-democratisation through the regional left turn and subsequent far-right backlash across South America. The panel also engages with political discourse and international dimensions of democratic change, comparing left-wing anti-debt populist narratives in the Global South and assessing the substantive impact of democracy promotion clauses in trade agreements in Chile and Peru. Taken together, the papers offer new insights into how mobilisation, ideology, and institutional frameworks interact to shape trajectories of democratic contestation and transformation in the region.

Title	Details
Electoral Behaviour After a New Social Movement: Insights from the 2019 Chilean Uprising	View Paper Details
Cheap Talk or True Impact? Democracy Promotion in Trade Agreements in Chile and Peru	View Paper Details
Leftist Anti-Debt Populism in the Global South: Comparing the Initial Narratives of Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Ousmane Sonko	View Paper Details
From Re-Democratization to the “Left Turn” and the Far-Right Backlash: Critical Junctures and Cleavages in Ten South American Countries	View Paper Details
Social Groups and Protest During Regime Transformations in Latin America	View Paper Details