"Laboring Under Chávez: Populism for the Twenty-first Century" by Paul W. Posner
 

Political Science

Laboring Under Chávez: Populism for the Twenty-first Century

Document Type

Article

Abstract

This analysis addresses two interrelated questions: what were labor conditions like under Hugo Chávez? and what do those conditions suggest about the relationship between populism and leftism in Latin America? The answer to the first question is unequivocal. Despite its socialist rhetoric, the Chávez regime fragmented and weakened organized labor, undermined collective bargaining, and exploited vulnerable workers in cooperatives. Thus the regime's primary foible was not its radical leftism but its pursuit of populist control at the expense of the leftist goals of diminishing the domination of marginalized groups and expanding their autonomous participation in civil society. This appraisal of labor politics under Chávez indicates substantial tension between the realization of these leftist goals and populist governance. It further suggests the need to distinguish more clearly between leftism and populism and their respective impacts on democracy.

Publication Title

Latin American Politics and Society

Publication Date

9-2016

Volume

58

Issue

3

First Page

26

Last Page

50

ISSN

1531-426X

DOI

10.1111/j.1548-2456.2016.00317.x

Keywords

Latin America, civil society, democracy, labor, political system, populism

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