What role can elections play in a socialist strategy rooted in grassroots movements from below? The left has often offered two answers: embrace electoral activity as the primary arena of political activity or reject it as a diversion from mass organizing. Mooers charts a path beyond this divide. He argues that socialism cannot be achieved through elections alone or by piecemeal reforms of the capitalist state. But he also challenges the left’s casual dismissal of electoral participation.
The Electoral Gambit ranges across left insurgencies North and South, with particular attention to Latin America’s Pink Tide. Mooers examines how it is that the separation of the economic and political spheres under modern capitalism has limited the horizons of the left and impoverished our conception of socialism. He explores movements from below, imperialism, citizenship, the rise of neoliberalism and recent experiments which combine electoralism and mass organizing. Bringing these themes together he develops a rich account of “insurgent parliamentarism” offering a new strategic path for anti-capitalist politics in the twenty-first century.