Folytatódik Speaker Series rendezvénysorozatunk március 10-én 13:00-tól, Julián Castro-Rea (University of Alberta) előadásában, The Political Right in the Americas címmel.
Absztrakt:
This presentation offers an overview of a recently completed manuscript bearing the same tile, currently under review at Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder, USA.
During the second decade of the 21st century, several countries in the Americas elected governments upholding right-wing ideologies. These governments rolled back the so-called “Pink Wave” of left leaning governments that had swept the region one decade earlier.
Why did it happen? How is it at all possible that governments that upheld the needs and priorities of popular sectors were overturned because those very popular sectors turned their back on them? How do these political options manage to present themselves as a credible alternative? These are some of the questions that drove the comparative exploration of the right in the Americas, and will be answered by understanding the origins of right-wing movements and the reasons of their recent success.
The comparative analysis shows a series of regularities across country cases, including:
a) Conservative and right-wing ideologies and organizations across the Americas appeared from the moment countries achieved independence,
b) The core social support to conservative and right-wing actors is a country’s elite,
c) Conservative and right-wing actors are generally wary of democracy. If they lack a political representation offering them a reasonable chance to win elections and uphold their interests and principles, they will opt for some kind of censitary democracy or outright authoritarian regimes.
d) Economic and social inequalities increased under right-wing governments throughout the 20th century.
e) Democratic transitions experienced in most Latin American countries by the end of the 20th century offered a new opportunity to the right to be electorally competitive, with the adoption of neoliberalism as a novel guide for public policy.
f) Negative impacts of neoliberalism temporarily shut down the right from power. It managed to survive thanks to the support of international networks of solidarity and civil society organizations with ideological affinity.
g) Right-wing actors were able to return to power resorting to post-ideological, pseudo democratic, and populist strategies; thus creating a competitive right-wing movement adapted to the realities of the 21st century.