South America's Ongoing Interrogation of the Political

Abstract

During the second half of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty first centuries, South America confronted the question of the political both in theory and practice. In this paper, I will first inquiry into matters of political theorization and the emergence of political concepts with authors such as Arendt, Borges, Koselleck, Lefort, and Merleau-Ponty. In the second and third sections, South America’s interrogation of the democratic institution of society during the late twentieth century and the question of populism and neo-populism in mid twentieth century and early twenty first century respectively will be reviewed with the help of four key South and Latin American authors: Nino and Laclau from Argentina, Lara from México, and Chauí from Brazil.