The Social Foundations of Latin America's Recurrent Populism

Problems of Popular Sector Class Formation and Collective Action

Bibliographic Data

ID4869866
AuthorsPhilip Oxhorn
Year1998
Volume11
Issue2
Pages212-246
Publication date1998-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Historical Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0952-1909 • E-ISSN: 1467-6443
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1467-6443.00061
OpenAlexW2092682616
LanguageEN
Citations received44

The article is an attempt to offer a 'bottom-up' explanation of political instability in Latin America by examining patterns of class formation in the region. It argues that the heterogeneous class structure characterizing the popular sectors creates collective action problems that historically have resulted in popular sector mobilization by populist elites, if not apathy or civil war. The possibility of an alternative basis for popular sector mobilization that is more favorable to democratic consolidation is explored on the basis of a neo-Marxist interpretation of class formation. By incorporating variables dealing with the state and the nature of civil society that are not directly related to the relationship of individuals or groups to the means of production, an effort is made to outline the basis of a new popular sector collective identity which offers a totalizing synthesis of this social heterogeneity. Some of the implications of this are briefly discussed in a concluding section

Civil society · Collective action · Collective identity · Democracy · Development economics · Economics · Interpretation (philosophy · Latin Americans · Marxist philosophy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Populism · Social movement · Sociology · Latin American socio-political dynamics · Political theory and Gramsci · Politics and Society in Latin America · Law

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