Ideologues and Ideologies in Latin America

Ideologues and Ideologies in Latin America is a collection of papers originally presented at the 1996 annual conference of the Society for Latin American Studies as part of a panel on the impact of ideology on nineteenth- and twentieth-century Latin America. Will Fowler, the panel organizer, has brought together ten papers that focus specifically on the twentieth century. His introduction suggests that the volume aims to be more than an assemblage of interesting individual research projects. Rather, Fowler argues, the ten chapters taken together demonstrate the “importance of ideological discourse at different levels focusing on the Latin American experience” (p. 9). Fowler offers a number of conclusions that he draws from the essays in the present volume: that ideologies are abused by cynical factions, that ideologies are “misinterpreted and/or hindered” by nationalism, and that ideologies are “invariably” betrayed in the name of pragmatism (p. 9). These broad assertions are only partially borne out in the subsequent chapters. For example, no evidence is offered to support the claim that ideological betrayal is inevitable. Thus the volume does not entirely live up to its own advertising.

Nonetheless, individual chapters do offer useful and coherent studies of the development of certain ideological movements. In his lucid exploration of anarcho-syndicalism in South America, Paul Henderson surveys the rise and fall of groups that advocated both pure anarchism and its more syndicalist variants. And in an interesting study of nationalist educational policies in prerevolutionary Cuba, Laurie Johnston suggests that secular state-run education is an essential element of democracy. Tony Kapcia, in an excellent chapter on revolutionary Cuba, convincingly argues that the supposedly nonideological 1959 Revolution did display certain ideological features. Nicola Miller, in her essay, dismisses the oft-repeated claim that intellectuals have enjoyed unusual access to political power in twentieth-century Latin America. Her examination of the relationship between intellectuals and the state suggests that, on the contrary, the modernizing state has opposed and controlled intellectuals. Several chapters consider the relationship between feminism and other sociopolitical movements. Marta Zabaleta offers what is in essence an autobiographical account of feminist political activity in Chile and in Argentina during the 1970s, while Anny Brooksbank Jones surveys interactions between feminist groups and other women’s organizations in contemporary Latin America. A miscellany of other chapters round out the volume. David Ryan denounces United States depredations in Guatemala during the 1950s and in Nicaragua during the 1980s, and in both cases he takes a position similar to that of Chomsky. United States policy, Ryan argues, displays considerable ideological continuity throughout the twentieth century. Peter Lambert shows that ideological discourse helped Alfredo Stroessner maintain his grip on Paraguay over the course of three decades, despite the fact that the Colorado party itself had only a vaguely articulated ideology. Marcelo Pollack studies the evolution of the Chilean gremialistas from student protest group to right-wing ideology factory for Augusto Pinochet. And David Hojman uses game theory to measure the impact of El Mercurio’s editorial page on economic policy in contemporary Chile.

There is, however, no agreement among the contributors as to precisely what constitutes ideology. For example, the definition of ideology that Ryan offers, one inspired in the work of Terry Eagleton, is completely at variance with Fowler’s use of the term in his introduction. Indeed, although some chapters, such as Ryan’s, do include an explicit definition, the introduction itself does not offer any overview of this problematic term. Instead, the editor implicitly assumes that ideology concerns political beliefs. He suggests that an absence of ideological discourse has contributed to an upsurge in nationalism and religious belief (p. 4), while other contributors view nationalism itself as a form of ideological discourse. The absence of a more probing examination of this term in the introduction is to be regretted.

Sadly, the volume betrays some signs of hasty editing. The general bibliography, for example, includes nine works by the editor, yet only one of these is actually mentioned in the text. The index entry for “ideologies” simply lists some 90 page numbers, with no additional commentary or guidance. Overall, Ideologues and Ideologies is valuable, not so much as a study of ideology in itself, but rather as a compilation of interesting case studies of certain ideological movements.