Farewell to Socialism?

The revalorization of by the left has led many to bid farewell to socialism, at least in its present forms. The antagonism between authoritarianism (of all forms) and has largely superseded that posited between capitalism and socialism. Or rather, it is widely argued that this is the case. This note does not attempt to set out a socialist project for Latin America but simply seeks to demonstrate the continued relevance of to the contintent, in spite of all the reservations expressed. Norbert Lechner has expressed a general feeling among Latin American intellectuals in stating that If revolution was the articulating axis of the Latin American debate in the 1960s, in the 1980s the central theme is democracy (Lechner, 1986b: 33). In the 1960s a rather apocalyptic vision of the development of underdevelopment (things could only get worse) led to a rather stark political choice between socialism or fascism. The victorious Cuban Revolution meant that was possible: The condition of dependency meant that it was necessary. The forthcoming socialist revolution was seen as an inexorable product of the explosive social contradictions and the perceived failure of capitalist modernization in the 1950s. When the military coups occurred in the 1970s and produced something akin to fascism, this momentarily strengthened the illusion that and fascism were the only alternatives open to Latin American societies. In defeat, much of the Latin American left accentuated its previous dogmatism. Indeed it is not an exaggeration to refer to a quasi-religious concept of politics: hence the current call of the 1980s to desacralize politics. Under the military regimes of the 1970s, intellectual endeavor turned from the social and economic aspects of dependency to the origins and nature of the new bureaucratic authoritarian states.! Around 1982, with the growing international economic crisis shaking the stability of the military