The Challenges of Leftist Mobilization in Latin America.

The particular political and economic context of Latin America today has made it very difficult for leftist political organizations to successfully mobilize and push their agendas. The chilling effect of severe repression under authoritarian regimes along with the pressure for governments to maintain neoliberal economic policies has significantly constrained both the tactics and policy positions of leftist organizations. This preliminary paper seeks to describe the types of leftist mobilization that has developed since the transition to democracy and suggest possible explanations for these variations. I examine the case of Chile to provide an empirical example of the proposed theoretical model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]