The Latin American Right in the era of the ‘Pink Tide’: democratic consolidation or counterrevolution?

This paper will present preliminary findings of an IRCHSS funded project I am working on aimed at critically examining the response of the Latin American Right to the emergence of Left governments in the region, assessing and evaluating its significance for, and impact on democratic stability and consolidation there. The main objectives of the study are to identify, examine and assess the nature, constitution, strategies, and activities of the Right in Latin America and their impact on the quality and advancement of democracy in the region. This paper will situate the study within general theory on the Left/Right divide, outlining the difficulties in situating political parties and organizations on a right/left continuum within the current context of globalization. It will argue that a contextual and historical grounding is necessary to provide a characterisation of the contemporary Latin American Right, and will hence attempt to trace the Right’s emergence in the region by reviewing a history of political ideas in Latin America. It will then further situate this within theory and debates on democratization in the region, questioning their current relevance and concentrating particularly on the role of civil society in democratization from a gramscian perspective. The paper then asks if in this light the contemporary Latin American Right can contribute positively or negatively to democratic consolidation in the region. In this way the paper hopes to provide an original theoretical and practical basis for analysis of the contemporary Right in the region in the current historical conjuncture.