From Marxism and Dependentismo to Civil Society and Democracy: Reconsidering the Democratic Transition Turn in Latin American Politics and Political Thought

This talk examines how contemporary political debates centered on democracy are indebted to intellectual shifts that occurred during the transitions from dictatorship to democracy in Latin America in the 1980s. We will discuss the contrast between the political languages of this period (centered around civil society and the rule of law) and the dominant debates of the 1970s, focused on the state, dependent development, and revolution. We will assess both the promises and the gaps of the transitional frameworks and how they still structure contemporary Latin American politics.