ABSTRACT
Latin America's post-liberalism, and in some cases reversal to populism after the controversial packages of the 1990s has developed in different ways, depending on the political and financial upheavals each country went through. Much of Latin America's shift to the left in the early twentieth century can be attributed to the disenchantment with neoliberal and globalizing practices introduced from the late 1980s by the Washington Consensus. It is sometimes reflected in the constitutional reforms, neo-populism has revived old demons from Latin America's republican history. As the champion of Latin America's liberal culture and fight against underdevelopment, Chile has maintained neoliberal reforms and political stability since the 1990s. By the mid-2000s, Latin America's political map seemed dominated by leftist governments, from Lula's Brazil and Kirchner's Argentina, via Chavez's Venezuela, to Tabare Vazquez's Uruguay. Latin America's new liberal political and economic trends were facilitated by an average growth rate of 5 per cent between 2003 and 2008.
