Social movements, hegemony, and new forms of resistance

in Latin America, new social movements are vigorously and creatively engaging in grassroots organization and local and national mobilizations. Social movements in Bolivia, Brazil, and elsewhere have challenged the conduct of politics in their countries and the region. Their growth and militancy have generated whole new repertoires of action. Indeed, they raise the possibility of at least some form of "rule from below." They have left the traditional twentieth-century parties far behind to create a nonauthoritarian, participatory political culture. Using existing political space to maximum effect, they are substantially strengthening participatory democratic practice and significantly altering political life. Less clear is whether they are, as Gramsci might conclude, coming together in a new cycle of subaltern actions that can break down the hegemony historically exercised by Latin America's ruling classes.