ABSTRACT
The chapter completes the analysis of the country cases included in the geographical scope of the volume. It focuses on the rise of Chavismo in Venezuela (leader-initiated populism) and of Syriza in Greece (party-rooted populism). The chapter thus emphasises how Chávez’s project, as well as Syriza, exploited the window opportunity opened by the crisis thanks to specific ideological and organisational resources that made them particularly fit to adapt to a highly fragmented social scenario. The chapter also offer a theory-driven account of the two ‘negative cases’ according to the dependent variable, i.e., those countries where we observed the strengthening of the existing ‘labour-based Left’ in the aftermath of the socioeconomic crisis, while no populist challengers arouse. This was, in particular, the outcome observed in Uruguay (with the electoral victory of the FA in 2005) and in Portugal (where moderate and radical left parties have tied a governmental alliance since 2015). In both countries, existing ‘union-party hubs’ dominated anti-austerity mobilisations and successfully channelled popular discontent through institutional avenues.
