Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-m9kch Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-02T21:12:34.692Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Local Democracy and the Transformation of Popular Participation in Chile

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Paul W. Posner
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Structural reforms, institutional arrangements, and the dominant mode of political party-base linkage all militate against effective popular participation in Chilean local democracy. Structural reforms have constrained local leaders' resources as well as their policymaking prerogatives; institutional arrangements limit public officials' accountability to their constituents and citizens' opportunities for input in decisionmaking. The parties of the center-left Concertación have reinforced this vicious cycle by pursuing a mode of linkage with civil society designed to promote their electoral success with only minimal organization and participation by their grassroots constituents. Such conditions fit well with the desire of elites of the Concertación and the right to depoliticize civil society in order to preserve macroeconomic and political stability. Yet they leave in doubt the efficacy of popular participation and the strength of local democracy in Chile.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 46 , Issue 3 , Autumn 2004 , pp. 55 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allende, Carmen Gloria. 2001. Socialist Party council member, Huecheraba municipality, Santiago. Author interview. June 12.Google Scholar
Arrate, Jorge, and Paulo, Hidalgo. 1989. Pasión y razón del socialismo chileno. Santiago: Ediciones del Ornitorrinco.Google Scholar
Ascher, William. 1984. Scheming for the Poor: The Politics of Redistribution in Latin America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Campero, Guillermo. 1987. Entre la sobrevivencia y la acción political: las organizaciones depobladores en Santiago. Santiago: Ediciones ILET.Google Scholar
Castañeda, Tarsicio. 1992. Combating Poverty: Innovative Social Reforms in Chile During the 1980s. San Francisco: ICS Press.Google Scholar
Castells, Manuel. 1983. The City and the Grassroots: A Cross-Cultural Theory of Urban Social Movements. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Castillo, Anastasio. 2001. Grassroots community leader, Huecheraba municipality, affiliated with the Pdc. Author interview. June 14.Google Scholar
Centra de Estudios Publicos (CEP). 1996. Percepciones del municipio de hoy: continuidad y cambios. Documento de Trabajo no. 251. July. Santiago: CEP.Google Scholar
Centra de Estudios Publicos (CEP). 1997. Estudio nacional de opinión pública 6, tercera serie. Documento de Trabajo 271. August. Santiago: CEP.Google Scholar
Cleaves, Peter S. 1969. Development Processes in Chilean Local Government. Politics of Modernization series, no. 8. Berkeley: University of California.Google Scholar
Cornelius, Wayne. 1974. Urbanization and Political Demand Making: Political Participation among the Migrant Poor in Latin American Cities. American Political Science Review 68, 3: 1125–46.Google Scholar
Cox, Cristian, and Cecilia, Jara. 1989. Datos básicospara la discusión de politicas en educación, 1979–1988, Santiago: CIDE/FLACSO.Google Scholar
Dockendorf, Eduardo, ed. 1990. Santiago dos ciudades: análisis de la estructura socio-económico espacial del Gran Santiago. Santiago: Centra de Estudios del Desarrollo.Google Scholar
Eckstein, Susan. 1977. The Poverty of Revolution: The State and the Urban Poor in Mexico. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Ensalaco, Mark. 1994. In with the New, out with the Old? the Democratising Impact of Constitutional Reform in Chile. Journal of Latin American Studies 26: 409–29.Google Scholar
Galdames, Alfredo. 2001. National director of Udi's project to build support among pobladores; chief of staff for Udi mayor Pilar Urrutia in Conchali municipality, Santiago. Author interview. June 8.Google Scholar
Gallardo, Bernardo. 1989. De la municipalidad, el autoristarismo y la democracia: una reflexión. Documento de Trabajo no. 423. Santiago: FLACSO.Google Scholar
Garretón, Manuel Antonio. 1989a. The Chilean Political Process. Boston: Unwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Garretón, Manuel Antonio. 1989b. Popular Mobilization and the Military Regime in Chile: The Complexities of the Invisible Transition. In Power and Popular Protest: Latin American Social Movements, ed. Susan, Eckstein. Berkeley: University of California Press. 259–77.Google Scholar
Goldrich, Daniel. 1970. Political Organization and the Politicization of the Poblador. Comparative Political Studies 3, 2: 176–202.Google Scholar
Gonzalez, Moya, Carlos, A., ed. 1992. [1996.] Ley orgánica constitucional de municipalidades. Santiago: Editora Juridica Manuel Montt S.A.Google Scholar
Gonzalez, Moya, Carlos, A., ed. 1993. Ley de juntas de vecinos. Santiago: Editora Juridica Manuel Montt S.A.Google Scholar
Hagopian, Frances. 1998. Democracy and Political Representation in Latin America in the 1990s: Pause, Reorganization, or Decline? In Fault Lines of Democracy in Post-Transition Latin America, ed. Felipe, Agüero and Jeffrey, Stark. Coral Gables: North-South Center Press. 99–143.Google Scholar
Houtzager, Peter P., and Marcus, J. Kurtz. 2000. The Institutional Roots of Popular Mobilization: State Transformation and Rural Politics in Brazil and Chile, 1960–1995. Comparative Studies in Society and History 42, 2: 394–424.Google Scholar
Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). 1997. Latin America After a Decade of Reforms: Economic and Social Progress in Latin America. Washington, DC: IADB.Google Scholar
Lawson, Kay. 1988. When Linkage Fails. In When Parties Fail: Emerging Alternative Organizations, ed. Lawson, and Peter, H. Merkl. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 13–38.Google Scholar
Marcel, Mario. 1994. Decentralization and Development. In En Route to Modern Growth: Latin America in the 1990s, ed. Gustav, Ranis, Washington, DC: IADB.Google Scholar
Molina, Jorge. 2001. Social leader in Población La Pincoya. Author interview. Santiago, June 14.Google Scholar
Morales, Eduardo, and Sergio, Rojas. 1987. Relocalización socioespacial de la pobreza, política estatal y presión popular, 1979–85. In Espacio y poder: los pobladores, ed. Hernán, Pozo. Santiago: FLACSO.Google Scholar
Munck, Gerardo L., and Jeffrey, A. Bosworth. 1998. Parties and Democracy in Post-Pinochet Chile. Party Politics 4, 4: 471–93.Google Scholar
Nickson, R. Andrew. 1995. Local Government in Latin America. Boulder: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
Oxhorn, Philip D. 1995. Organizing Civil Society: The Popular Sectors and the Struggle for Democracy in Chile. University Park: Penn State University Press.Google Scholar
Perez, Julio. 2001. National Secretary, Community and Neighborhood Action Front of the Chilean Christian Democratic Party (formerly Departmento de Pobladores). Author interview. Santiago, June 15.Google Scholar
Peterson, George E. 1997. Decentralization in Latin America: Learning Through Experience. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Portes, Alejandro. 1989. Latin American Urbanization in the Years of the Crisis. Latin American Research Review 24, 3: 7–44.Google Scholar
Portes, Alejandro, and John, Walton. 1981. Labor, Class, and the International System. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Portes, Alejandro, and José, Itzigsohn. 1997. The Party or the Grassroots: A Comparative Analysis of Urban Political Participation in the Caribbean Basin. In Politics, Social Change, and Economic Restructuring in Latin America, ed. William, C. Smith and Roberto Patricio, Korzeniewicz. Coral Gables: North-South Center Press.Google Scholar
Posner, Paul. 1999. Popular Representation and Political Dissatisfaction in Chile's New Democracy. Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 41, 1 (Spring): 59–85.Google Scholar
Posner, Paul. 2002. Development and Collective Action in Chile's Neoliberal Democracy. Paper presented at the annual conference of the American Political Science Association, Boston, August 29.Google Scholar
Pozo, Hernán. 1981. La situatión actual del municipio chileno y el problema de la municipalizatión. Contribuciones Programa FLACSO no. 7. Santiago: FLACSO.Google Scholar
Pozo, Hernán. 1986. La participatión en la gestión local para el régimen autoritario chileno. Documento de Trabajo no. 287. Santiago: FLACSO.Google Scholar
Raczynski, Dagmar. 1994. Social Policies in Chile: Origin, Transformations, and Perspectives. Democracy and Social Policy series, Working Paper no. 4. Notre Dame: Kellogg Institute for International Studies, University of Notre Dame.Google Scholar
Reyes, Juan. 2001. National Secretary for Unions for the Ppd. Author interview. Santiago, June 6.Google Scholar
Roberts, Kenneth M. 1998. Deepening Democracy? The Modern Left and Social Movements in Chile and Peru. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Robles, Juan. 2001. Ps member, Cesco representative, neighborhood association vice president in Población Yungay, La Granja municipality, Santiago. Author interview. June 11.Google Scholar
Schneider, Cathy Lisa. 1989. The Mobilization at the Grassroots: Shantytowns and Resistance in Authoritarian Chile. Ph.D. diss., Cornell University.Google Scholar
Schneider, Cathy Lisa. 1995. Shantytoum Protest in Pinochet’s Chile. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Scully, Timothy R. 1992. Rethinking the Center: Party Politics in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Chile. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Servicio Electoral Republica de Chile. 1997. Escrutinos elecciones municipales 1996. October 27. Santiago.Google Scholar
Servicio Electoral Republica de Chile. 2001. Escrutinos elecciones municipales 2000. October 29. Santiago.Google Scholar
Stallings, Barbara. 1978. Class Conflict and Economic Development in Chile, 1958–1973. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Valenzuela, Arturo. 1977. Political Brokers in Chile: Local Government in a Centralized Polity. Durham: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Valle, Luciano. 2001. Chilean Socialist Party National Secretary of Social Organization. Author interview. Santiago, June 19.Google Scholar
Walker, Ignacio. 1990. Socialismo y democracia: Chile y Europa en perspectiva comparada. Santiago: Cieplan-Hachette.Google Scholar
Yáñéz, José H., and Leonardo Letelier, S. 1995. Chile. In Fiscal Decentralization in Latin America, ed. Ricardo Lopéz, Murphy. Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank.Google Scholar