Neoliberalism and the Latin American Left: The Search for a Socialist Project

Abstract

The internal contradictions of the neoliberal project have generated not only diverse forces of opposition and resistance but enabling conditions for a number of alternative projects. One such project (social liberalism) is the response of social forces supportive of or with a vested interest in the existing socio-economic system. The concern here is to ensure the political viability of the neoliberal project in terms of its legitimacy and the stability of the regimes disposed towards it. The institutions ranged behind this model are run by the dominant class and elements of a middle class that are tied up and accommodated to the interests of this class. A second type of response is located in the popular sector of civil society and relies on community-based form of development based on the agency of non-government forms of organization. The raison d’être of these NGOs is to mediate between the grassroots and government/ outside ‘donor’ agencies. The essence of this type of response is to expand opportunities for popular participation in decisions that affect the community without, in effect, challenging the institutionality of the existing system. Liberal democracy at the macro- and the micro-level is what defines the goal of organizations that take this approach. This type of response is associated with what could be termed the social Left. A third type of response is associated with social forces of opposition and resistance that have also formed in the popular sector of civil society.