This division of the Latin American left between "good" social democrats and "bad" populists is open to challenge. But Castañeda is right to draw attention to the fact that democracy and populism are engaging with similar challenges of political order. Moreover, it is important to recognize that democracy and populism also have compatible normative grounds, both seeking to enact the sovereign rule of the people. Nevertheless, democrats and populists diverge over how to respond to such challenges as how to manage majority-minority relations, safeguard individual rights, and establish a just and enduring political order. The coexistence of these two political logics within Latin American societies generates significant political fault lines, reflective of the incomplete nature of democratic order in the region.
NOTES
1 Jorge Castañeda, "Is Evo Morales an Indigenous Che?" New Perspectives Quarterly 23, no. 2 (2006), p. 59.
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