Populist Coalitions in Latin America

Date: 

Tuesday, September 22, 2020, 12:00pm to 1:20pm


This event is part of a virtual series. To view the recording, click here.

Speaker: Rodrigo Barrenechea, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
Discussants: Thea Riofrancos, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Providence College; Aaron Watanabe, PhD Candidate in Government, Harvard University
Moderated by: Steven Levitsky, Director, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies; Professor of Government, Harvard University

This talk evaluates the aftermath of populism in Ecuador, Venezuela, and Bolivia. Unlike Ecuador, Venezuela and Bolivia have shown signs of societal polarization, with social class cleavages manifesting themselves in mobilization for and against populist parties and their legacies. How are these differences explained? I will argue that these parties' different trajectories of support accumulation while in power account for these outcomes.

Presented in collaboration with Weatherhead Center for International Affairs