This is a public session in conjunction with the conference "Latin America's 'Left Turn': Causes and Implications," chaired by Steven Levitsky.

The conference brings together leading social scientists from the United States and Latin America in an attempt to explain the origins, dynamics, and consequences of Latin America’s shift to the left. The primary objective is to identify the common pressures that transform discrete national experiences into a larger political trend, as well as the factors that produce such striking variation within overarching patterns of political change.