May 2026 Volume 53 Number 3
Issue Editors: Kemy Oyarzún and Edgars Martínez Navarrete
Summary:
This issue of Latin American Perspectives, the first of a two-part series, examines Chile’s postdictatorship democracy and the persistence of neoliberal policies, focusing on the rise of social movements and the tensions between grassroots mobilization and institutional political change. Through analyses of student, labor, feminist, and Indigenous struggles, contributors explore growing inequality, precarious employment, social exclusion, and resistance to extractivism. Particular attention is given to the October 2019 uprising, the role of participatory democracy and cultural expression, and the subsequent constitutional reform processes. The issue critically examines how state institutions have contained and redirected popular demands for structural transformation, highlighting the challenges of achieving meaningful democratic change.
