Populist Moments and Extractivist States in Venezuela and Ecuador: The People’s Oil?

When and Where

Monday, November 08, 2021 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm
Online, Zoom Webinar

Speakers

Donald Kingsbury and Teresa Kramarz

Description

Join us as we discuss the intersection of extractivism, populism, and accountability in Latin American politics in the book launch of Populist Moments and Extractivist States in Venezuela and Ecuador: The People’s Oil? with co-authors Donald Kingsbury and Teresa Kramarz.

Although populist politics are often portrayed as a driver of poor environmental governance, Populist Moments and Extractivist States identifies it as an intervening variable at best – one that emerges in response to the accountability deficits of extractive states. Case studies in Venezuela – for many, the prototypical petrostate – and Ecuador – which exchanged agribusiness dependency for oil decades later – illustrate how extractive states are oriented by a colonial logic of export and service. This logic regulates state-society-nature relationships and circumscribes avenues for local stakeholders to hold public officials and extractive industries to account for environmental and human harms. Populist moments of the early 21st century across Latin America responded to these conditions, promising more equitable and sustainable futures. However, rather than reversing the technocracy, verticalism, and exclusion of the recent past, populist moments often intensified and legitimated them in the drive to maximize and distribute resource rents. The result has been cyclical, as populist moments of hope and rupture fall prey to the extractivist states they tried, and failed, to replace.

Speakers:
• Donald Kingsbury (co-author) - Assistant Professor, Latin American Studies and Political Science, University of Toronto
• Teresa Kramarz (co-author) - Director, Munk One Program; Co-Director, Environmental Governance Lab; Associate Professor, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto
• Antulio Rosales (discussant) - Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of New Brunswick
• Nadège Compaoré (discussant) - Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Toronto
• Craig Johnson (moderator) - Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Guelph

Contact Information

Sponsors

Department of Spanish & Portuguese, Latin American Studies program, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy