Politics and the Pink Tide

The streets did not fall quiet when Latin America turned left. Kathleen Bruhn compares protest in Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Venezuela under the leftist governments of the Pink Tide with protest under the conservative, neoliberal administrations before them, drawing on data about individual protesters and protest events. Her question is what shapes dissent: economic policy, the ties between parties and social movements, or the shared norms about which tactics are acceptable.

Some findings cut against easy assumptions. Orthodox neoliberal policy did provoke more economic protest, yet neither the more radical governments nor those most closely bound to social movements proved better at containing unrest, or at doing so without police violence. A careful comparative study for anyone interested in how governments of the left answer opposition from the street.