With Margaret E. Crahan, CUNY; Ted Henken, CUNY; Hal Klepak, Royal Military College of Canada; William LeoGrande, American University; and Lisandro Pérez, Florida International University

with Carlos Fernando Chamorro, Editor, Confidencial; Arturo Cruz, Jr., INCAE Business School; Shelley McConnell, The Carter Center; Richard Feinberg, University of California at San Diego

On November 6, 2006, the Latin American Program held the initial workshop of a three-year project on "The ‘New Left' and Democratic Governance in Latin America," a comparative project focusing on Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Uruguay, and Venezuela. A group of distinguished scholars and practitioners from the United States, Latin America, and Europe discussed core definitions of what constitutes "the left" in Latin America and how it differs from earlier periods. Workshop participants also considered whether or not the left has a distinct approach to social and economic policy as well as to issues of human rights, political participation, institutional design and development, and foreign policy.