The promise of theorizing in the study of social movements in Latin America, which was first expressed in the 1992 collection The Making of Social Movements in Latin America, has not been fulfilled. The Latin American variant of new social movements (NSM) has not helped us to understand social movements, nor has it superseded alternative approaches. Instead, political economic and political sociological theories continue to cast powerful analytical light on recent social movements with regard to their selection of themes, the formation, timing, and expansion of their activities, and the chances of gaining new political advantages. This theoretical power can be seen in cases drawn from multiple studies of strike activities and subsistence protests as well as from deeper consideration of two large-scale movements: Brazil?s Landless Rural Workers? Movement (MST) and Bolivia?s Movement toward Socialism (MAS).