Table Of Content
POLITICAL SCIENCE
“Carlos de la Torre’s insightful study of Latin
American populism sheds important new light
on populist practice, discourse, and ritual. His
d
excellent analysis of the complex,multi-faceted e
l
relationship between populist leaders and their a
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heterogeneous set of followers is ‘must’reading o
r
r
for students of populism.” e
—Kurt Weyland,Vanderbilt University Populist
Anew brand of populist politicians has risen to power in the
late s and s. They have kept the Manichaean and p
o
moralistic populist discourse of their predecessors while pur- Seduction
p
suing different economic programs. The old nationalist and u
l
distributive policies of past populist regimes have been replaced i
s
by neoliberal policies that have privatized state enterprises,elim- t
inated protective tariffs, and concentrated income. In Populist s in
e
Seduction in Latin America,Carlos de la Torre shows that populism
d
did not disappear,as expected,with the modernization of soci- u
c Latin America
ety.Combining the study of populist discourse with an analysis
t
of the social and political setting for the emergence and per- io
sistence of populism,Professor de la Torre argues that the dura- n
bility of populism is explained by the deficient incorporation i
n The Ecuadorian Experience
of the popular sectors into Latin American democracies.
L
a
Carlos de la Torre is an associate professor of sociology at
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Drew University,Madison,New Jersey.He has published exten- i
n
sively on populism,democracy,and racism in Latin America.
A
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Ohio University e
r Carlos de la Torre
Research in International Studies i
c
Latin America Series No. 32 a
ISBN 0-89680-210-8 Cover illustration:La Seducción del populismo
,!7IA8J6-iacbaa!
in América Latinaby Leoncio Sáenz
Cover design by Emma Heinemann
Ohio
Populist Seduction in Latin America
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Populist Seduction in
Latin America
The Ecuadorian Experience
Carlos de la Torre
Ohio University Center for International Studies
Research in International Studies
Latin America Series No.
Athens
© by the
Center for International Studies
Ohio University
Printed in the United States of America
All rights reserved
The books in the Ohio University Research in International Studies Series
are printed on acid-free paper ∞
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication
Torre,Carlos de la.
Populist seduction in Latin America : the Ecuadorian experience / Carlos de la Torre.
p. cm.— (Research in international studies,Latin America series / Ohio University
Center for International Studies ; no.)
Includes bibliographical references (p.).
---(pbk.: alk.paper)
.Populism—Ecuador—History—th century..Ecuador—Politics and
government—th century..Velasco Ibarra,José María,–..Bucaram Ortiz,
Abdalá,– .Populism—Latin America—History—th century..Political
culture—Ecuador..Political culture—Latin America.I.Title.II.Monographs in
international studies.Latin America series no..
.
.—dc
-
Contents
Preface vii
Abbreviations xix
Chapter The Ambiguity of Latin American
“Classical”Populism
Chapter Velasquista Seduction
Chapter Leader of the Poor or Repugnant Other?
Abdalá Bucaram’s Populism
Chapter The Continuing Populist Temptation
Conclusion
Notes
References
Index
v
Preface
Books tend to reflect,to a large extent,the obsessions and life histo-
ries of their authors.This volume is a result of my ambiguous feelings
toward,and intellectual fascination with,Latin American populism.I
remember as a child how my family life was affected by the passions
stirred by populist leader José María Velasco Ibarra.Some of my un-
cles and aunts were passionate Velasquistas.They had supported the
caudillo in his five presidencies (‒, ‒, ‒,
‒,and ‒),and longed for him during his exiles.My fa-
ther, the late Carlos de la Torre Reyes, who was the editor of El
tiempo,a Quito newspaper,was an opponent of Velasco.As a liberal,
my father was committed to a struggle for fundamental democratic
freedoms that were not always respected by the populist caudillo,and
faced many attacks by Velasco’s supporters.For instance,El tiempo
was at the forefront of the opposition against Velasco’s autogolpe
(self-inflicted coup d’état) in . I remember watching how Ve-
lasco’s nephew and minister of defense, Jorge Acosta Velasco, in-
sulted and falsely accused my father on television and how my
father’s office in El tiempowas vandalized by Velasquista crowds.In
this climate of political instability and lack of rights for the opposi-
tion,we were always ready to face my father’s imprisonment.Fortu-
nately that never occurred.
Reflections on the late s and early s also brings back
memories of large crowds and collective action.I was impressed by
the large crowds that Velasco attracted when giving public speeches.
I also remember the traffic jams and the smell of tear gas left by police
repression of student demonstrations against Velasco’s regime.
Several years later,in ,as a student at the Graduate Faculty of
vii
the New School for Social Research,I returned to Ecuador to define
my dissertation topic. I was surprised by the passion aroused by
Abdalá Bucaram,a new populist caudillo.In this election he faced
Rodrigo Borja,a moderate Social Democrat.Most scholars and jour-
nalists saw in Borja the promise of a social democratic modernity.
After all,his party,Izquierda Democrática,was a modern political or-
ganization with a clear ideological platform.Borja was committed to
the respect of human and civil rights and the reconciliation of the na-
tion after the authoritarian excesses of León Febres Cordero’s regime
(‒). With the excuse of stopping “subversion,” Febres Cor-
dero had abused the human rights of his opponents.Several guerrilla
members,including some of my friends,had been tortured and killed
by the government.Conflicts between the executive and congress and
the judiciary had plagued Febres Cordero’s administration.He had
also faced a military insurrection led by General Frank Vargas.After
these years of political instability, most journalists and intellectuals
saw the elections as a contest between a modern party with a
concrete ideology and program of modernization and democrati-
zation and the populist politics of the past, represented by Abdalá
Bucaram.
Journalists and social scientists constructed Bucaram as the em-
bodiment of the rabble and a charlatan who charmed ignorant
masses. They argued that poverty and lack of education explained
poor people’s support for Bucaram (Fernández and Ortiz ).He
was seen as a corrupt demagogue and a danger to democracy.In spite
of what the press and some academics were expressing,Bucaram’s
populist movement was obviously more than manipulation. Only
middle-class prejudices could reduce his followers to ignorant
masses misled by a charlatan.When,out of curiosity,I attended some
of Bucaram’s mass meetings, I was impressed. Bucaram drew on
popular culture and humor to attack the well-established “white”
elites and champion the dignity and self-worth of his supporters.
During these mass meetings, Bucaram established a dialogue with
viii
the audience.He focused on everyday life to politicize the humilia-
tions of common mestizo Ecuadorians.He transformed the servants,
the poor,and the excluded into the essence of the real Ecuadorian na-
tion,and their bosses into effeminate antinational oligarchies.I was
also terrified to see how this self-appointed messiah saw himself as
the embodiment of the people’s will that stood above and beyond any
democratic institution or procedure.
The tensions and ambiguities between the authoritarian appropri-
ation of the people’s will and the inclusion of previously excluded
people into the political community that was so clearly revealed in
Bucaram’s populism are what attracted me to the study of these phe-
nomena.I wanted to understand how populist leaders appealed to
those they led without assuming manipulation by leaders,irrational-
ity of followers,or the reduction of populism to models of instrumen-
tal rationality that explained politics by the exchange of votes for
goods and services. I became determined to understand the com-
plexities of populist seductions and explore the tensions between lib-
eral democracies and populism.
The study of populism is certainly puzzling. In Latin America,
populism is generally viewed in negative terms.For most it implies an
abnormality,an anomaly,and a passing phenomenon that will eventu-
ally, and hopefully, go away. That is why most studies of populism
begin by focusing on its negative characteristics,on what populism is
not when it is compared with other political ideologies, parties,
movements,or regimes.For instance,unlike liberalism or socialism,
populism lacks an ideology.Populist movements are not the political
expression of the economic interest of a particular social class.Nor
can populism be specified as a type of political regime.Because of
populism’s negative characteristics,modernization theory,for exam-
ple, considered it a temporary event, an aberration produced by
abrupt processes of social change.
Populism is also associated with leaders who manipulate,followers
who are betrayed,and overall backwardness.Modernization theorists,
ix
Description:Is Latin America experiencing a resurgence of leftwing governments, or are we seeing a rebirth of national-radical populism? Are the governments of Hugo Chávez, Evo Morales, and Rafael Correa becoming institutionalized as these leaders claim novel models of participatory and direct democracy? Or ar
