A Receding Tide? The ‘Pink Tide’ and its Legacy

December 16, 2014

After more than a decade and a half of electoral success, the left in Latin America is facing a difficult political context of managing slowing economic growth, high inflation, persistent corruption, and high crime rates. This places the electoral left in Latin America in a challenging position as these issues often benefit centre-right parties. The recent presidential elections in Brazil and Uruguay were more competitive than expected despite the apparent dominance of leftist parties in the electoral arena. In addition, the turbulence of a post-Chávez Venezuela highlights the tensions that the most radical version of left politics in Latin America is currently facing. Should left-wing parties lose power in the near future, it will represent the first electoral defeat of a ‘pink tide’ government since 1998. In this time of flux, this academic workshop is interested in discussing the potential legacies that the ‘pink tide’ has had for Latin American politics. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Has the left been able to create the institutional and policy legacy that is immune to partisan shifts, or do elections still ‘matter’ in Latin America?
• Have the constitutional reforms in some countries, e.g., Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, gained sufficient legitimacy in society and among political forces to constitute a new legal base of these countries democracy?
• What impact has the rise of the middle class, low unemployment and the decline in income inequality in the region had on the electoral strategies of left?
• What legacy have left parties imparted in terms of integrating new actors civil society, e.g., the unemployed, indigenous groups, etc., into the state and governing coalition?
• What does the phrase ‘the left’ mean in contemporary Latin America?
• What legacy has left rule had in terms of forwarding environmental concerns? Is the electoral left still primarily concerned with a modernist development model, or are there indications of a post-development model?

The Conference will be held in the Jackman Humanities Building, Room 100A, University of Toronto, 170 St. George Street

 

The confirmed panelists for this event are:

 

Professor Roberta Rice, University of Toronto Scarborough, “How to Decolonize Democracy: Indigenous Governance Innovation in Bolivia”

 

Professor Hepzibah Muñoz Martínez, University of New Brunswick, “Neoliberal Finance and the Left in Latin America: Monetary and Exchange Rate Policies of Brazil and Venezuela”

Jennifer Fender, PhD Candidate (Political Science), University of Toronto, “The Moderate Left in an ‘Egalitarian’ Context: Challenges for the Meaning of the Left in Present Day Uruguay”

Manuel Larrabure, PhD Candidate (Political Science), York University, “The ‘Pink Tide’ in Brazil and Chile: Mass Movements, Democracy and Political Bargains”

Kevin Edmonds, PhD Candidate (Political Science), University of Toronto, “Subsidizing Stability: Venezuela in the Eastern Caribbean”

 

Arturo Ezquerro-Cañete, PhD Candidate (International Development Studies), Saint Mary’s University, “The Rise and Fall of Fernando Lugo”

Joaquín Bardallo Bandera, PhD Student (Political Science), University of Toronto, “Ecuador’s 2008 Constitution and its Liimitations”

Thomas Chiasson-LeBel, PhD candidate (Political Science), York University, “Class Perspective on a Wave of the Pink Tide”

 

Please register no later that Wednesday, January 7^th, 2015 for this event at the following link:

 

http://las.utoronto.ca/events/current/9-public-events/126-pink