Peasants, Left-Wing Governments and Neo-Developmentalism in Latin America: Exploring the Contradictions, Part II

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

In several Latin American countries peasant and indigenous movements have been in the forefront of resistance to neoliberalism. They have been important allies of left-wing parties helping them to get elected and re-elected into government. Most of these governing parties or coalitions promised substantial reforms in agrarian and agricultural policies in their political programs during their political campaigns. However, it will be argued that most of them, if not all, have not significantly managed or even attempted to transform the model of rural development inherited from the process of neoliberal globalization. The various country case studies of the contributors to this panel will discuss to what extent this proposition is valid or not, why this is the case, and what have been the actual objectives of these governments. The countries covered in Part I of this panel are all countries that have implemented, to a lesser or greater degree, agrarian reforms during the twentieth century, have a significant peasantry (with the exception of Venezuela) and an agribusiness sector that is not as developed as in other Latin American countries, and have governments that have self-declared to be building the “Socialism of the Twenty First Century” or “Buen Vivir/ Vivir Bien”. The countries covered in Part II of this panel are all countries that did not carry out an agrarian reform in the twentieth century, have a relatively small though politicized peasantry (with some exceptions) have some of the most developed agribusiness sectors in the region, and have governments that have taken rhetorically a less anti-neoliberal stand.

Sub Track

• Agrarian and Rural Life

Session Organizers

• Cristóbal Kay, International Institute of Social Studies

• Leandro Vergara Camus, University of London

Chair

• Cristóbal Kay, International Institute of Social Studies

Individual Presentations

• Peasant Movements, National and Subnational States, and the Soy Boom in Argentina - Pablo Lapegna, University of Georgia

• Fernando Lugo and the False Promise of Agrarian Reform in Paraguay - Arturo Ezquerro-Canete, Saint Mary's University

• Land and Politics: Agrarian Movements, Social Demands and Progressive Governments in Brazil - Sérgio Sauer, University of Brasília (UnB)

• The Peasantry at Another Crossroad: Lights and Shadows of the Agrarian Policies of Left-wing Governments in Latin America - Leandro Vergara Camus, University of London