“Exemplary”, “Exceptional” and “Singular” Populisms. Towards a Historical-Conceptual and Political-Intellectual Understanding of Populism in Latin America in the Seventies

Abstract

This  article  aims to  outline  answers  that  allow us  to elucidate when and how populism was constituted as a Latin American political concept. Who were its conceptual producers? And  what  do these  conceptualizations and their  various  uses  reveal  about  vast  sociopolitical transformations in the region? A conceptual, historical and a political-intellectual approach is used to scrutinize connections between debates and problems around “the populist question” in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Colombia  and  Mexico  during the  seventies. We traced different  uses of  the concept  and modes of theoretical approach used by intellectuals and academics from the subcontinent to “manufacture” the concept. Our analysis shows  that  populism  is  a key  concept  in  the  political lexicon  of  Latin  America  and  that  debates  over  its definition on a continental scale, catalyzed representations of “the autochthonous” and “the own” of Latin American politics. We are dealing with a concept that made possible the invention of that representation called Latin America, a category that in the early years of the 1970s was endowed with an essential identity, articulated with new versions of self-exoticism and the negative dimension of the forms of organization of community life in the subcontinent. The article contributes to the understanding of the debates around populism on a national and continental scale, connecting representations, problems and conceptualizations that gave life to the idea according to which the essence of 20th century Latin American politics is the opposite of the ideal or desirable political horizons.