Class Antagonism without Class Politics: Understanding the Recent far-right Turn in Chile and Argentina Using Two National Surveys
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Room 206 Ingraham Hall - 1155 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706.
About the presentation: The recent far-right turn and democratic backsliding in Latin America have raised questions about the social forces behind this political shift. One influential hypothesis argues that socioeconomic divisions within the working class have generated a political cleavage between labor-market insiders and outsiders, with disadvantaged workers turning against the socioeconomic rights of more privileged, unionized workers. Using national survey data from Chile and Argentina, this presentation challenges this argument. We find no evidence that socioeconomic differences within the working class have produced significant differences in class identity or ideological orientations. Class-based identities, perceptions of social conflict, and the perceived importance of unions remain strong among workers in both countries, although with some important differences that we explore in the presentation. However, these antagonisms are not translated into distinctive forms of political representation in the electoral arena. The recent far-right turn, therefore, cannot be explained by the erosion of class consciousness among economically disadvantaged workers. Rather, it raises the question of why persistent class antagonisms fail to generate corresponding forms of class politics. Data comes from the National Surveys on Class, Labor, and Conflict (CONCLAT Survey), an original survey fielded in 2025 in Argentina (N=1,698) and Chile (N=3,048) and representative of the employed population in each country.
About the presenter: Tinker Visiting Professor Sociology, Dr. Rodolfo Elbert is a tenured full-time researcher at the CONICET (National Scientific and Technical Research Council of Argentina) based at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, as well Assistant Professor in the Sociology Department.
