중남미

The main purpose of this research is to elucidate the reasons of the emergence and success of radical left in 21th century in Latin American politics. In essence, this paper argues that the conservative shift of party systems and the absence of meaningful leftist party are the main reason for the emergence of the radical left in Latin America. To support this argument, the author examines two cases of the radical left in Latin America: Venezuela and Bolivia. In case of Venezuela, the pact of Punto Fijo in 1958 in which two main parties in Venezuelan politics -center-left AD and center-right COPEI- compromised to cooperate led to conservative shift of the Venezuelan party system. Also, the end of oil bonanza and the following economic crisis alienated the Venezuelan people from the extant conservative political parties. Therefore, Hugo Chavez’ radical leftist program entirely replaced the old political system of Venezuela. In case of Bolivia, the collapse of established party system stemmed from the Bolivian presidential system, so-called hybrid presidentialism in which members of the Congress decide who is going to be the president in case of runoff election. The hybrid presidentialism necessarily led to coalitional politics among political parties. As a result, the most important purpose of electoral coalition in the Bolivian politics is not to preserve party’s identity but to win the presidential election. Under such circumstance, Evo Morales and his political party MAS superceded weak and characterless old political system with radical leftist agenda.