Populism is a strongly nationalistic authoritarian form of politics, whose inspiration was sometimes drawn from Hitler and Mussolini's meteoric rises to power [Faces of Latin America: 113-5]. It is based on the bringing together of workers and industrialists to erase class barriers, often with the common goal of opposing the policies of conservative landowners. Usually, populism flourished in city and slum areas, the majority of which consist of workers and displaced landowners. Populist governments, such as Perón's Argentina, saw the state as a means of achieving development, by way of industrializing the economy. Populism is heavily reliant on corporatism; rulers initiate and control labor unions and other large peasant organizations, improving their wages and working conditions if complete control is surrendered to the populist government.
             Land invasions are organized takeovers of haciendas and plantations by peasant farmers. Usually, land invasions are fast and quite often violent with peasants taking a strong stand to ensure their survival when government processes meant to achieve the same objectives take too long. Tomas (illegal takeovers of land) were "encouraged by the existence of a regime sympathetic to dramatic land reform"[Scheming for the Poor: 253]. The government refused to let the police intervene in most cases of rural or urban Tomas, often legalizing the takeover or simply ignoring it. Land invasion is often the first step to the building of shantytowns, and nearly always ends up being permanent.
             Villas miseries (Argentina), favelas (Brazil), callampas (Chile) and pueblos jovenes (Peru) are shantytowns, which are usually located on the outskirts of all major industrial towns within Latin America. They are usually established by land invasions, often becoming permanent and are generally built on land that has been deemed unsuitable for building, for example- places such as muddy hillsides (houses are destroyed ...