Was there a left turn in Latin America? Building a social democracy index

A social democracy index designed to adjudicate among positions in the debate on the extent to which the political left in Latin America has been leftist shows empirically that both the maximalist Marxist and the liberal institutionalist perspectives are inaccurate. Most countries belonging to the so-called radical-left camp have undergone substantial social democratic achievements since their electoral victories. Moreover, the uneven distribution of social democracy performance in so-called moderate and radical camps casts serious doubt on the homogeneity of these country groupings.