Ernesto Laclau, Latin American Populism, and Progressive Intellectuals: A Brief Note on an Uncomfortable Topic

Abstract

This essay offers a critical assessment of contemporary theories sympathetic to Latin American populism, focusing on the work of Heinz Dieterich, Hans-Jürgen Burchardt, and Ernesto Laclau. It argues that such approaches tend to overstate the democratic potential of populist regimes while downplaying their authoritarian, intolerant, and anti-liberal dimensions. By conflating political intention with social reality, these interpretations overlook the practical effects of populist governance on institutions, individual rights, and rational public deliberation. The text highlights the role of postmodernism and revisionist Marxism in legitimizing plebiscitary forms of democracy at the expense of liberal pluralism. Furthermore, the essay examines the intellectual motivations behind these perspectives and the continued fascination of Global North academia with populist experiments in the Global South. This fascination is fueled by utopian impulses, nostalgic idealism, and simplistic political reasoning that blur the line between democracy and authoritarianism. As a result, it is argued that intellectuals have abandoned their critical role, favoring a seductive stance that hinders a rigorous evaluation of populism’s political and ethical consequences in Latin America.