Momentums, demos y baremos. What is Popular in the Analyzes of Latin American Populism

Abstract

This article reviews three classical analysis of populism in Latin America, analyzing the way in which they perceive and represent popular identifications. The main argument presented here says that canonical readings of Latin American populism contrasted populist experiences to a sort of evaluating historical or theoretical scale. After dealing with these issues in analysis of populism in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, the article argues that a definition of popular identifications must be linked to Robert Dahl’s question “who ought to be a member of the demos?” Finally, it puts forward a possibility to think about popular identifications as the expression of a capacity to put the world into words.