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Reviewed by:
  • The New Mole: Paths of the Latin American Left
  • Peter Kingstone
Emir Sader, The New Mole: Paths of the Latin American Left (New York: Verso 2011)

The “hegemony” of neo-liberalism in Latin America did not last long. By the end of the 1990s, the left began a return to power across the region. However, the series of electoral victories that brought leftists to power in diverse settings such as Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, El Salvador or Venezuela did not mean a definitive rejection of market-oriented models either. In fact, the shifts in political power revealed a range of alternative approaches based on differing configurations of public support. In some countries, such as Bolivia, Ecuador or Venezuela, elected leaders embraced more aggressive changes, backed by long-neglected or excluded constituencies. In other countries, such as Brazil, Chile or Uruguay, newly elected leaders developed economic models that sought to develop a balance between state and market, supported by large swaths of voters neither enamoured of nor hostile to markets.

This shift to the left and the emergence of competing models of political economy has been, quite appropriately, the subject of a good deal of work in recent years. The prevailing conclusion is that there are two basic alternatives – one more moderate and the other more radical. While the many studies have differing points of emphasis, arguably the most important difference is the conclusion analysts reach about them. Ideologically centrist or conservative analysts view the more radical version skeptically. By contrast, leftists are deeply disappointed with the acceptance of neo-liberal ideas and policies by moderate governments, especially in the case of Brazil and Lula. Emir Sader’s The New Mole falls squarely in this latter category. Sader is a well-known and important figure on the left in Brazil – both as an analyst and as a political figure. His perspective on the rise and apparent fall of neo-liberal hegemony is particularly welcome. But, given the many outstanding studies (including Sader’s already published critique of Lula and the Worker’s Party), the question then is what, if anything, does this new work add to our understanding of the phenomenon?

Unfortunately, the answer is not that much. Sader is at his best on the “enigma” of Lula’s program. Under Lula and Dilma, the Workers’ Party’s (pt) blending of policies that primarily benefit both financial capital and the poor defies easy classification as either neo-liberal or “post-neo-liberal.” But, Sader’s argument here echoes his earlier published work and does not differ substantially from a large number of analyses of the pt of various ideological persuasions. Sader’s main concern is how to build a genuinely “post-neo-liberal” alliance that joins Brazil and other quasi-reformist governments with the real post-liberal efforts of Hugo Chavez’ Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (alba) bloc. Sader’s argumentation about the larger trend in the region largely eschews social science standards of evidence and argumentation and instead is written more like a Marxist pamphlet. It features grand sweeping statements and frequent references to [End Page 338] social forces without any effort to specify them. Paragraph after paragraph makes enormous assertions, any one of which merits close consideration of evidence. Yet, none is offered. In short, the volume does not meet the expectations of empirical social science.

So, the many weaknesses of the alba bloc economies and the questions about the viability of the Venezuelan or Bolivian growth model go unexamined. Brazil’s implementation of an extreme and violent neo-liberal program under Cardoso is not analyzed in any detail whatsoever and the perception of virtually any nonideologue that Brazil never fully or deeply embraced the program is not considered. The corruption charges levied against the Lula government, for example under the mensalão, are evidence of the resistance of the right and its allies in the US. Of course, we don’t know who these conspirators are, nor do we have any consideration of the possibility that the charges had a valid basis.

One can write effective social science work that presents powerful critiques of neo-liberalism. For example, James Petras’ The Left Strikes Back offers a...

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