Latin American Populism: realities and phantoms

Abstract

The confused essence of the “Populism” concept is introduced in the theoretical and applied field. Subsequently, the author tries to define, in a differentiated way, the Latin-American populism as an original own historic socio-political reality of the period 1930-1985, that conformed the most important political parties of the region, some of which subsist today with different programs to the ones of their origins. Those political parties inaugurated, with more or less success, the popular participation in the region and tried vainly its development.