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A Latin Americanization of Southern Europe? A Typology of Emerging Patterns of Mobilization

European Union
Latin America
Political Economy
Representation
Immigration
Enrico Padoan
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Enrico Padoan
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Abstract

This paper proposes a taxonomy of the political parties that has emerged recently in Southern Europe during the current economic crisis and the austerity measures implemented, drawing on an analysis of the 'left turn' occurred in Latin America as a reaction to the previous period, dominated by neoliberal thinking. My argument focuses on countries characterized by a high dualization of their welfare regimes and by the decline of 'union-based hubs' of political representation. The independent variables considered here are: the capacity, by the existing 'mainstream' labour-based parties, of channelling and harmonizing the demands from both insiders and outsiders of the welfare regimes, and the kind of electoral linkages used by those parties; the degree of 'corporatism' of the main trade unions; the autonomous mobilization (and the very existence) of extended interest-based association networks. The different combination of these variables provokes a high variability in the kind of party, which successfully advances an anti-neoliberal discourse, in virtue of its organization and to its linkages with interest-based associations. The Uruguayan, Venezuelan, Argentinean and Bolivian experiences of the past decade, according to this framework, could shed light, respectively, on the very different Portuguese, Italian, Greek and Spanish parties opposing to austerity measures. Strong differences between the two regions obviously exist, but the ways in which emerging leftist or populist parties provide new channels of representation to marginalized sectors seem strikingly similar.