Moving beyond the Washington consensus: the resurgence of the left in Latin America

Since the late 1990s, neoliberalism has been losing support in Latin America. In fact, almost two-thirds of Latin Americans are currently governed by leaders who consider themselves to be to the left of the political spectrum (Roberts 2008: 328). How can we explain this fact? Even though this question has been answered in many different ways, most scholars apply a bottom-up perspective,explaining the electoral victories of left-of-center governments as the result of the patient construction of the organizational and coalitional capacities needed to confront neoliberal ideas and policy reforms (Silva 2009: 1).