Title: Populism in Latin America: a double interview – POP
Headings: Populism in Latin America: a double interview
Populism in Latin America: a double interview
Content: Chavismo has been extremely populist and in power for more than 15 years. A similar story is found in Ecuador or Bolivia. In Mexico, which is usually not considered one of the strongest cases of populism in Latin America a very populist candidate lost by very small margins in the two last presidential elections – and that is a better performance by a populist than in almost any European country ever. In Chile we observe a similar story. In Kirk Hawkins’ and mine coding of manifestos and campaign speeches for populism, the 2013 Chilean presidential campaign is one of the lowest scores in Latin America but has as much populism as some European countries usually considered typical (concerning) cases of populism. For example, Marco Enriquez Ominami’s speeches score a 1, on a 0-2 scale, and he received a bit more than 10% of the votes. That is about as much as observed in Geert Wilders’ PVV manifesto, who received a very similar vote-share in the 2012 Dutch elections. So, to give some perspective, a typical case of “absence of populism” in Latin America has as much success of populism as a typical case of successful populism in Europe. SR: A first answer would be that the institutional context in these two countries plays against the likely rise of populism to power.