Neoliberal globalisation and Latin American resistance : a neo-Gramscian perspective

Abstract

This thesis deals with issues of power, class, conflict and identity. It deals, more specifically, with the democratic aspirations of peoples in Latin America who for centuries have been quietened and who have sporadically fought back to recover their voice. More specifically, it deals with the 'Pink Tide' phenomenon which has seen a wave of leftist governments elected in the region over the past decade, promising an end to 'savage neoliberalism' and a new era of political, economic and ideologically autonomy. The thesis explores the rise of the Pink Tide in the larger context of the rise and fall of the neoliberal globalisation project integral to U.S. hegemony in the post-Vietnam era. In doing so, it necessarily engages with the dominant analytical and political frames of understanding of the current world order derived from orthodox analyses of International Relations (IR) and International Political Economy (IPE), which propagate the 'common sense' notion that there is no alternative to this order. The thesis critically examines this orthodoxy in order to elucidate its conservative bias whose primary aim, it suggests, is to prevent those quietened from speaking for themselves. Instead, the thesis utilises a multidisciplinary approach, combining themes from IR, IPE, Latin American studies and the Marxian perspectives of Antonio Gramsci in particular, to explore the rise of the Pink Tide by examining its two most prominent members - Venezuela under Hugo Chavez and Brazil under Lula and Dilma Rousseff. The thesis proposes that, from a Gramscian perspective, their emergence can be understood as a response to the organic crisis of neoliberalism in Latin America underway since the late 1990s. In this context the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela represents a counter-hegemonic project that seeks to instil in the Venezuelan people a radical class consciousness, while the Brazilian project under Lula and Rousseff is better understood as a 'passive revolution' whose aim is to resecure consent for the neoliberal order by making significant material and ideological concession to the Brazilian masses. The relationship between these two projects, the thesis proposes, should be understood dialectically, in terms of the potentials for radical politics that emerge out of their interaction - potentials that are especially prominent at the regional level, where both countries are at the forefront of a process of regional integration that aims to make Latin America more politically, economically and ideologically autonomous in the neoliberal world order. All this is particularly significant for the U.S., given the importance of Latin America to its hegemonic status. However, over the past decade, the U.S. has found its ability to impose its will on the region diminishing, as it has become increasingly distracted by challenges to its hegemony from elsewhere around the globe. This situation, the thesis concludes, opens up all kinds of opportunities for a fairer, more prosperous and more democratic Latin America as the 21st century unfolds. -- provided by Candidate. Show more