ABSTRACT
This chapter traces out the left turn in Latin American politics – the emergence of a ‘progressive cycle’ of regimes committed to the search for an alternative, more inclusive form of development – in the context of a widespread discontent with and rejection of the neoliberal policy agenda in the macroeconomy. The chapter traces out the contemporary dynamics of this political cycle, which paralleled almost precisely the primary commodities boom in the first decade of the new millennium. It then traces out another swing of the pendulum of electoral politics, this time to the right. The chapter proceeds to examine in some detail the dynamics and the consequences of this right turn in Latin American politics – the apparent end of the progressive cycle on which many had pinned their hopes, and still do, for another world, a more equable and inclusive form of development and a more participatory and democratic form of politics.
