Political violence and State. Readings from René Zavaleta Mercado about authoritarian politics in Latin America

• Main Author: Katherine Salamanca Agudelo
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Universidad Nacional de Villa María 2016-02-01
• Series: Raigal
• Subjects: Fascismo; política autoritaria; Zavaleta; democracia; Estado; América Latina
• Online Access: http://raigal.unvm.edu.ar/ojs/index.php/raigal/article/view/9

This paper is a political analysis from some of the readings of René Zavaleta Mercado about authoritarian politics in Latin America. Rethinking Zavaleta allows us arguing about the regional approach of fascism as an authoritarian modality of state policy (Zavaleta, 1976, 1979. 1984), built on particular sociopolitical conditions. Modality that consequently distances itself from the hegemonic reading assigning to it the conceptual centrality of fascism as an historical phenomenon from early XX century specific to Italy and Germany. In contrast, the readings of Zavaleta allow placing the emphasis on the political question of fascism in the region. This translates in a proposal that question both the historical conditions of its formation/dissolution and the theoretical and methodological approach enabling openings for emancipatory transformation towards egalitarian and democratic ways. Thus, the central argument developed here holds that the main contribution of the author to this theoretical field is rooted in the two aforementioned points. Therefore, this work intends showing how in his analytical work (rooted in the latinoamerican Marxism tradition) he realized readings not only descriptive of the historical, economic and political singularities of fascism in various contexts of emergence, but also fundamentally expressed as a political issue to examine. To the author, it implied, in consequence, thinking the conceptual work methodology for the emergence of categories and building an unorthodox approach of Marxism on the topic of the authoritarian modalities of politics, with special attention for local history and knowledge in Bolivia and Latin America. Hereafter, this article proposes discussing this reading of Zavaleta following two axes: I. In the first, from a reconstruction of the readings of fascism as an authoritarian policy modality in Latin America. And the presentation of his conceptualization about the democratic condition as a limit to fascism. II. In the second, the interrogation about a singular way of inclusion within the Marxist tradition.