This article discusses the existing relationships between politics and society at the start of the twenty-first century in Latin America, a region that is characterized by its heterogeneity, and that is addressed as a homogenous whole. Politics are treated as an extension of democracy, the changing role of institutions, the weakness of political capital, difficulties of representation, and the new regionalist integrationism. When engaging in social analysis, this work addresses divisions among social classes, large and growing inequality, poverty, lack of security, and multiculturalism.