Consolidation

Abstract This chapter explores how the different generations remember the consolidation of each new democracy during the 1980s. These consolidations were threatened by possible authoritarian backlashes, yet sealed by parallel socialist triumphs in national elections. The chapter pivots around the first half of the 1980s as a key period that connected the authoritarianism that came before with everything that came after, including the gradual withdrawal of mass movements with overarching narratives, and the gradual but steady rise of apoliticism and postmodern alienation. The chapter further looks at the imprint of specific political leaders on young people, and how this compounded general changes in society. As the chapter brings back many insights of Generation 1, it interweaves various generational viewpoints and voices. The polyphonic result appropriately conveys the impression that all generations shared of the rapidly changing sociopolitical environment during the 1980s. Simultaneously, the chapter uses this polyphony as a background against which to explore the ways that the 1980s affected each generation differently, and how each generation has retrospectively positioned it in history and geography.