En el último tiempo el concepto de populismo ha cobrado relevancia en la discusión académica. Esto, tanto por su empleo para catalogar a diversas emergencias políticas que remecen los sistemas de partidos, como por el debate que suscita la definición del término mismo. Con miras a una comprensión que no sólo desentrañe el fenómeno, sino que atienda también a sus condiciones de posibilidad, este artículo propone un diálogo entre la teoría de clivajes y el enfoque procesual del fenómeno populista. De esta forma, se plantea una suerte de imbricación analítica entre ambas teorías: mientras se dotaría a la teoría populista procesual de un marco comprensivo mayor capaz de compararse con otros tipos de articulaciones políticas, la teoría de clivajes se beneficiaría de la comprensión amplia de los procesos de rupturas y crisis hegemónicas.

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During the 1970s and 1980s, collective action showed several new traits that generated a debate on studying social movements. These are the distance that social movements were having with the political system, the importance of normative claims and non-material demands, the middle-class social composition, and the centrality of identity. Around these characteristics emerged the concept and study of “New Social Movements” (NSMs), and the attempts not only to understand their ways of action, but also the changes in society that could explain their emergence in contraposition to “traditional movements.” In Latin America, the NSMs concept was due to a new political context, mainly explained by the rise of dictatorships and new links that developed between state and society. The latter describes a different cause than that which started the discussion in Europe and North America. During the 1980s, when the debates started in the region, there were no signs of change in the economic or class structure as it seemed to have happened in the First World. Instead, the decomposition of the socio-political matrix and traditional developmentalist state is more relevant to explain the emergence of NSMs in Latin America. Because of the latter, understanding these movements’ nature draws the attention to certain specificities of the societies in which they unfold, and how movements defy them.

Página242that caused an articulation of ignored social demands. The purpose of the analysis is to understand the reasons because of which this crisis was so hard to canalize by the institutional system in 2019, as well as offer a few hypotheses to identify the elements that could have diminished the conflict, at least until now. Finally, some theoretical dilemmas that the outbreak represents for the discussion about populisms are pointed.