ABSTRACT
Within the profound civilization crisis humanity faces today, there has also been a severe crisis on the Left in different parts of the world. Alternative proposals represented by so-called progressive governments in Latin America failed fundamentally in terms of the transformative objectives they set for themselves. An inability of the “official” Left to reflect analytically and be self-critical regarding these experiences has impeded the process of learning from them, deepening the struggle of the Left for alternatives to capitalism and, on a deeper level, of a civilization in crisis. Through an analysis of the pink tide in legal and economic terms, Edgardo Lander in this chapter breaks down the failures of the first wave of progressive governance in South America. This process exposes the root causes of the crisis we face today and possible directions for future solutions.
