Every generation develops its own New Left. This is a natural process as proponents struggle to come to grips with new challenges and old failures. Continue reading
Tag Archives: left populism
Interview with Richard Sandbrook on Reinventing the Left
Ali Burak Guven (ABG): What was your motivation for writing Reinventing the Left?
To be honest, I never set out to write such an ambitious book. I originally conceived the project as a critique of neoliberal development doctrine. But one thing led to another, and my inclination to move beyond critique to the central question of “what might be done” came to the fore. This, to my mind, raised the issue of the viability and promise of the democratic left. Continue reading
The Left’s Central Dilemma
Sometimes it appears that the democratic left is engaged in the labour of Sisyphus. Sisyphus, according to the Greek myth, was condemned by the gods to spend eternity in an utterly futile task: to push a boulder to the top of a hill, only to see it roll down to the bottom each time. Leaders of the left have their own peculiar burden to shoulder. When progressive parties pursue a moderate strategy of accommodation with capitalism, they may achieve egalitarian gains but rarely enough to satisfy their militant followers. But if they pursue a more confrontational stance vis-à-vis inherited structures of privilege and power, they risk instigating an economic crisis that may usher in a crushing political crisis as well. This pattern is evident in the Global South, the focus of this post, but it probably applies also to the Global North. Continue reading
Left Populism: An Alternative to Neoliberalism?
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Left populism has recently emerged as a political response to growing inequality, persistent poverty and the dominance of neoliberal doctrine. It dates from the early 2000s, with varying strains in Eastern and Central Europe, the “Bolivarian Revolution” of Hugo Chávez and Nicolas Madura in Venezuela since 1999 and somewhat similar regimes in contemporary Ecuador and Bolivia. In Reinventing the Left in the Global South, I deal with the last three cases in detail.
is left populism just old-style populism in new clothes, or is it a new and genuine alternative to neoliberalism? Continue reading