Fabio Luis Barbosa dos Santos

How do governing elites in the global South attempt to remake hegemony in a conjuncture of durable crisis? This is the question at the core of Southern interregnum, a comparative conjunctural analysis of hegemonic projects in Brazil, India, China, and South Africa. Working with a Gramscian notion of crisis, centred on the interregnum as an enduring period of instability and uncertainty, in which hegemonic authority erodes and competing projects for crisis resolution emerge, the book proposes a novel critical reading of the convulsions that are currently reshaping the political economy of the global South and the world-system. Mapping the variegated trajectories of elite projects to reconcile accumulation and legitimation – and probing the limits of these projects – the book breaks new ground in the study of the contemporary global South.

Fabio Luis Barbosa dos Santos delves into the history of South America to understand the rise and fall of the so-called 'progressive governments'. In the wake of mobilizations against neoliberalism in the 1990s, most South American countries elected presidents identified with political change. However, less than twenty years after Hugo Chávez's victory, this trend seems to be reversed. Lula 's tenure has ended and Bolsonaro's has begun. What happened? Supported by an extensive bibliography and hundreds of interviews, the author addresses the trajectory of each South American country, including those which did not elect progressives, in addition to Cuba. The various national examinations are enriched by an analysis of regional integration attempts, providing a detailed and necessary recent history of the subcontinent. Originally published in Portuguese as Uma história da onda progressista sul-americana (1998-2016) by Elefante, São Paulo, 2018.