A criticism to post-marxist populism

With the presentation of the book ''Populist religion: a criticism to post-marxist populism'', by Aleardo Laría, CADAL began the series of cultural meetings entitled Foro Catalinas. On this opportunity, lawyer and journalist Aleardo Laría commented on his new book with economist Luis Rappoport.

With the presentation of the book "Populist religion: a criticism to post-marxist populism", by Aleardo Laría, CADAL began the series of cultural meetings entitled Foro Catalinas. On this opportunity, lawyer and journalist Aleardo Laría commented on his new book with economist Luis Rappoport. In “La religión populista: Una crítica al populismo posmarxista”, Laría explains that populism is not an ideology - like marxism- nor a political movement - like fascism - but a stlye used by certain leader to appeal to the colective unconscious of the masses and earn their support. For Laría, the presence of this peculiar style in different political formations - left or right wing - explain its versatility and the difficulty of political theory to grasp it. The essay by Laría closes with a passionate and radical criticism to the populist style, with conservative matrix, associated with pure political demagogy. For the author, populism is the ultimate expression of the political religions that inhabited the 20th century, that is inevitably destined to dissappear.

Aleardo Fernando Laría Rajneri is a lawyer and journalist born in General Roca, Rio Negro, Argentina. He studied law at Universidad de La Plata, where he took part in the foundation of FURN (Federación Universitaria de la Revolución Nacional) a university group where Nestor Kirchner would do politics later. In the province of Rio Negro he was member of Juventud Peronista from the so called "revolutionary trend" and lawyer of the Union Sindicato de Obreros Empacadores de Fruta. On 1977 he was exiled in Spain. There he served as lawyer for Unión General de Trabajadores, a union linked to Partido Socialista Obreo Español (PSOE). Currently he divides his time between Spain and Argentina. He is columnist of the newspaper "Río Negro" and his articles are published by the News Agency Diarios y Noticias to newspapers in the interior of Argentina. He has written two essays where he criticizes the presidential system and defends the implementation of the parliamentary system: "Calidad institucional y presidencialismo: los dos problemas no resueltos de Argentina" and "El sistema parlamentario europeo. Las ventajas del parlamentarismo” published by Grupo Editor Latinoamericano.

Luis Rappoport is economist, researcher at of Buenos Aires office of ECLAC. He specializes on institutional matters of economic development. He was undersecretary of State Relations and Economics from the Economics Department in 1989. He is author of the book “Presidencialismo absoluto” and other essays. He is member of Club Político Argentino.