Perspectives on the Historical Origin and Essential Nature of Twenty-First Century Socialism in Latin America

Abstract

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, with the revival of left-wing politics, there has been a thriving variety of debates and explorations of twenty-first century socialism in Latin America. The socialist traditions of the region are deep and rich, but few of them were successful. How were Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador able to realize their distinctive models of twenty-first century socialism in peripheral areas? Through a retrospect of the origins and logic of twenty-first century socialism in Latin America, this article attempts to analyze the opportunities and challenges faced by twenty-first century socialism, followed by its historical essence and significance.

Keywords:

• Latin America
• socialism in the twenty-first century
• origin and essence

Acknowledgements

This article is an adapted version of my article with the same title published in the Chinese journal Contemporary World and Socialism, vol. 115, no. 3, 2015.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on Contributor

He Qin (following Chinese practice, the surname, He, is placed first) is a research assistant at the Department of Contemporary Socialism, Academy of Marxism, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Her research interests lie in the areas of Latin American studies and contemporary world socialism.

Notes

¹Please refer to the website: http://data.worldbank.org/country/bolivia.