Latin American Populism

In the 1960s，some scholars studying Latin American politics began to use the concept of “populism” to analyze the democracy of Latin American since World War Ⅱ.^[10] Peru ’s “Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana（APRA） Doctrine”，Brazil ’s “Vargas Doctrine”，Mexico ’s “Cardenas Doctrine” and Argentina ’s “Peronism” were all representative examples of populism in Latin America.Compared with populism in Russia and the United States，Latin American populism is in the forms of “crossclass” struggles with the urban working class as the main body，which often occur during the election season and have powerful and charismatic leaders to directly echo with the public.^[11] The concept of populism in Latin American studies is mostly constructed in the “specific situations” of Latin American countries，however，such definition of populism already formed a relatively independent semantic system and theoretical paradigm once constructed.In the context of Latin American studies，the focus of the definition of populism has shifted more to the strategies and styles of political leaders.For example，Kurt Weyland defined populism as a strategy for political leaders to gain and use political power，which is based on the direct and non-institutionalized support from a large number of unorganized followers.When studying Latin American populism，^[12] Robert S.Jansen also emphasized the role of political leaders in political mobilization.He claimed using the term “populist mobilization” to reconstruct the concept of populism and defined it as a continuous and large-scale political project，that is，mobilizing marginalized social groups to enter the public view and participate in political struggle with an antielite and nationalist discourse.^[13]