By Javier Auyero, Pablo Lapegna and Fernanda Page Poma

“Since the early 1990s, much of Latin America has witnessed the simultaneous growth of both protest and clientelism (Svampa and Pereyra 2003; Giarracca 2001; Giraudy 2007; Levitsky 2003; Stokes 2005; Auyero 2007; Almeida and Johnston 2006; Shefner et al. 2006; López-Maya and Lander 2006), a twin process that most sociological and political science research deems unlikely. Patronage (its vertical networks, opportunities, resources, and ideological frames) tends to counteract the emergence of collective action (its horizontal networks, opportunities, resources, and ideological frames). The joint increase in clientelism and contentious politics is paradoxical only if we fail to pay attention to the zone of mutual influence between both political phenomena. Attention to the area of intersection and interaction uncovers a variety of ways that contentious politics articulate with patronage politics.”

Read full article at LATIN AMERICAN POLITICS AND SOCIETY, Vol. 51 Issue 3 – Fall 2009

By Jeffrey W. Rubin and Emma Sokoloff-Rubin

“Today, once again, the idea of equitable development doesn’t seem radical, but rather makes common sense. And the potential for a hemispheric alliance is stronger than ever. Democracies in Latin America have already produced innovative strategies for tackling tough problems, from racial exclusion to urban poverty to migration, and they have forged progressive coalitions to support these new approaches. In Buenos Aires, factories run cooperatively by workers – factories that were taken over when the owners ran them into bankruptcy – compete efficiently in the market. In Rio de Janeiro, kids in shantytowns join music groups to fight drug trafficking and violence, while in San Cristobal, Chiapas, Mayan Indians organize transportation systems and marketing networks in urban neighborhoods where 30 years ago they would have been forbidden to live. And through hometown associations in the United States, Mexican migrants send back money to their communities of origin, where remittances are matched three-for-one by the Mexican government in an investment program overseen by the migrants themselves.

This is the face of democratic innovation in our hemisphere. For the first time ever, the vast majority of key actors in Latin America, from businesspeople to militaries, middle classes to grassroots social movements, play by the democratic rules of the game and respond to disagreement with counterproposals rather than violence. And for the first time ever, a U.S. President speaking a language of cooperation and dialogue could transform a century of distrust into a forward-looking hemispheric alliance.”

Read full article at http://blogs.reuters.com/

Stephen Kingston

Red Pepper, October/November 2007.

Read it at http://www.redpepper.org.uk/article549.html

The government is promising ’devolution right to the doorstep’ as a
means of reinvigorating local democracy. A pilot participatory budget
making project, whereby people can ’have a direct say’ in how their
taxes are spent, has been running in Salford. Stephen Kingston questions its democratic credentials.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Sérgio Baierle
Mouvements n^o 47-48, 2006 (La Découverte)

Voir l’article ici PDF file

Powered by ScribeFire.

Benjamin Goldfrank – UNM/Political Science
Andrew Schrank – UNM/Sociology

See file here:

Mike Geddes
Valeria Guarneros-Meza

Local Governance: Cross National Trends and Research Issues