Introduction: the Latin American left in theory and practice

After the 1980s debt crisis and the parallel neoliberal assault across Latin America, the last decase has witnessed a resurgence of leftist movements and governments in the region. As imperial wars were raged in other areas of the world, Latin America served as a beacon of hope for the Left, a site of resistence. Latin American peasant, worker, and indigenous radicalism seemed to restore radical reform and, in some cases, revolution to the vocabulary. At the same time, centre-left governments assumed power in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and, most recently, Peru, continuing the neoliberal capitalist projects that preceded them, if in modified forms. The possibilities and limitations of the Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, and Rafael Correa governments in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador raise fundamental questions concerning the plausability of advancing a twenty-first century socialist model against the model of global capitalism. This volume---bringing together political scientists, historians, sociologists, and economists---provides an assessment of the state of the Left in Latin America