The Right in the Americas

The Right in the Americas discusses the origins, development, and current state of conservative and right-wing movements in ten countries in the Americas. The growth of the right is one of the most important issues of the moment in global politics. Within the context of democracy erosion, rejection of traditional politics, and economic uncertainty, right and extreme-right actors are capable of offering misguided answers and hope to a significant part of a country's population, who will trust their promises and bring them to power with their vote. This dynamic has repeated itself in an astonishingly consistent pattern across the Americas. This book analyses eight Latin American countries-Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, Uruguay, and Venezuela-along with Canada and the United States, two G7 countries. It demonstrates that conservatism is in fact a hemispheric phenomenon, promoted and invigorated by the regional hegemon-the United States of America-both as government and as civil society. Beyond this regional scope, the peculiarities of each case study are explored in detail, providing solid historical background, while at the same time uncovering their commonalities and cross-pollination. This study will be of great interest to scholars of conservatism, right-wing politics, comparative politics, and North American and Latin American politics.

Julián Castro-Rea is Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta, Canada. Esther Solano is Professor of International Relations at Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil.

Introduction: The Right in the Americas Part I: The Americas as Right-Wing Transnational Space 1. United States: The Mecca of Conservatism in the Americas and its International Projection Part II: Genesis and Development of Right-Wing Actors 2. Argentina: Democracy, Authoritarianism and the Pursuit of Order 3. Canada: The Evolution, Transformation, and Diversity of Conservatism 4. Colombia: Matrices, Tensions and Contexts for Explaining the Origin and Change of Right-Wing Politics 5. Honduras: The Problem of the Origin of Political Ideas on the Right 6. Mexico: The Right, from Opposition to Power and Back 7. Uruguay: The Political Right and Some Landmark Moments in History, from the Foundational Anti-Jacobinism to the Reemergence of the Militaristic Far-Right Part III: Contemporary Expressions of the Right 8. Brazil: The New Right and the Rise of Jair Bolsonaro 9. Chile: Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy on the Right 10. Venezuela: Democracy as Market, or How the Right-Wing Opposition Confused the Two in its Quest for Power Part IV: Conclusions The Right in the Americas: Concluding Remarks