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The Power of Persuasion: Issue Framing and Advocacy in Argentina

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

AMY RISLEY
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Abstract

This article examines the collective action frames that civil societal actors in Argentina have used while engaging in advocacy. It argues that by devising effective framing strategies, members of civil society organisations increase their chances of participating in the agenda-setting, formulation and adoption phases of policy-making. The relationship between framing and participation is supported by a comparative analysis of two cases of advocacy: the campaign for a freedom of information law and the struggle for child protection legislation. The evidence suggests that civil societal actors often rely on the strength of their ideas and their persuasive power to achieve political relevance, which is analytically distinct from political outcomes.

Spanish abstract

Este artículo examina los marcos de acción colectiva que los actores de la sociedad civil en Argentina usaron mientras se involucraban en el cabildeo contra abusos de derechos humanos. El estudio señala que al diseñar estrategias efectivas de encuadre los miembros de las organizaciones de la sociedad civil incrementan sus posibilidades para el establecimiento de las agendas, la formulación y la calendarización en la elaboración de políticas públicas. La relación entre el encuadramiento y la participación se sostiene por medio de un análisis comparativo de dos casos de cabildeo: la campaña por una ley sobre la libertad de información y la lucha por la legislación para la protección del niño. La evidencia sugiere que los actores de la sociedad civil con frecuencia se apoyan en la fuerza de sus ideas y su poder persuasivo para lograr relevancia política, lo cual es, analíticamente, distinto de los resultados políticos.

Portuguese abstract

Examina-se os moldes das ações coletivas adotadas por protagonistas da sociedade civil na Argentina quando engajados em defesa de direitos. Argumenta-se que, ao criar estratégias efetivas para estruturar questões, membros de organizações da sociedade civil aumentam sua capacidade de participar nas etapas de definição de prioridades, formulação de diretrizes e na adoção de políticas públicas. A relação entre o estruturamento e a participação é apoiada por uma análise comparativa de dois casos de defesa de direitos: a campanha por uma lei de liberdade de informação e a luta por legislação pela proteção da criança. As evidências sugerem que protagonistas da sociedade civil frequentemente dependem da força de seus argumentos e do seu poder de convencimento para atingirem relevância política, o que é analiticamente distinto dos resultados políticos.

Keywords

civil societyadvocacypolicy-makingcollective action framesfreedom of informationchildren's rightsArgentinasociedad civilcabildeoelaboración de políticas públicasmarcos de acción colectivalibertad de informaciónderechos del niñoArgentinasociedade civilformulação de diretrizesquadros de ação diretaliberdade de informaçãodireitos da criançaArgentina
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 43 , Issue 4 , November 2011 , pp. 663 - 691
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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References

1 World Bank, ‘Argentina: Crisis and Poverty 2003 – A Poverty Assessment’, vol. 1: ‘Main Report’, Report No. 26127-AR (2003).

2 Dinerstein, Ana, ‘¡Que se Vayan Todos! Popular Insurrection and the Asambleas Barriales in Argentina’, Bulletin of Latin American Research, 22: 2 (2003), pp. 187–200CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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4 Interview with Norberto Borzese, president, Foro Social para la Transparencia (Social Forum for Transparency), 13 March 2003.

5 This analysis stems from a larger project: Amy Risley, ‘Creating Political Opportunities: Civil Society Organizations, Advocacy, and Policy Influence in Argentina and Chile’, unpubl. PhD diss., University of Texas at Austin, 2005.

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12 See, for example, Carlos Acuña and Ariana Vacchieri (eds.), La incidencia política de la sociedad civil (Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI, 2007). Scholars have also examined the policy impact of piquetero groups' strategies of protest and negotiation. See Garay, Candelaria, ‘Social Policy and Collective Action: Unemployed Workers, Community Associations, and Protest in Argentina’, Politics & Society, 35: 2 (2007), pp. 301–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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14 Leiras, ‘Observaciones para el análisis’.

15 Sheila Meintjes, ‘The Politics of Engagement: Women Transforming the Policy Process – Domestic Violence Legislation in South Africa’, in Anne-Marie Goetz and Shireen Hassim (eds.), No Shortcuts to Power: African Women in Politics and Policy Making (London: Zed Books, 2003), pp. 140–59.

16 See Grugel, Jean and Peruzzotti, Enrique, ‘Grounding Global Norms in Domestic Politics: Advocacy Coalitions and the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Argentina’, Journal of Latin American Studies, 42: 1 (2010), pp. 29–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar, which builds on Keck, Margaret and Sikkink, Kathryn, Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998)Google Scholar; Simmons, Beth, Mobilizing for Human Rights: International Law in Domestic Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and similar works that trace the domestic impact of international norms and ideas.

17 I argue elsewhere that individual groups can maximise their resources by forming alliances: see Risley, Amy, ‘The Political Potential of Civil Society: Advocating for Freedom of Information in Argentina’, The Latin Americanist, 49: 2 (2006), pp. 99–130CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and ‘Creating Political Opportunities’.

18 Benford, Robert, ‘An Insider's Critique of the Social Movement Framing Perspective’, Sociological Inquiry, 67 (1997), pp. 409–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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20 Benford, Robert and Snow, David, ‘Framing Processes and Social Movements: An Overview and Assessment’, Annual Review of Sociology, 26 (2000), pp. 611–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21 J. Craig Jenkins, ‘Nonprofit Organizations and Policy Advocacy’, in Walter W. Powell (ed.), The Nonprofit Sector: A Research Handbook (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1987), p. 297; see also Taylor, Marilyn and Warburton, Diane, ‘Legitimacy and the Role of UK Third Sector Organizations in the Policy Process’, Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 14: 3 (2003), pp. 321–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Analysts of democratising countries have likewise concluded that greater ‘access’ to policy-makers (in the form of consultation, for instance) should not be equated with influence: see Anne-Marie Goetz, ‘Women's Political Effectiveness: A Conceptual Framework’, in Goetz and Hassim (eds.), No Shortcuts to Power, pp. 29–80.

22 Posner, Paul W., ‘Local Democracy and Popular Participation: Chile and Brazil in Comparative Perspective’, Democratization, 10: 3 (2003), pp. 39–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Even at the local level, however, the implementation of participatory reforms depends largely on leaders' political will and interests. See Rodgers, Dennis, ‘Contingent Democratisation? The Rise and Fall of Participatory Budgeting in Buenos Aires’, Journal of Latin American Studies, 42:1 (2010), pp. 1–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 Examples include the Centro para la Responsabilidad Social (Centre for Social Responsibility), Compromiso Ciudadano (Citizen Commitment), Fundación para la Cambio Democrático (Democratic Change Foundation), Fundación Gobierno y Sociedad (Government and Society Foundation), Instituto de Estudios Comparados en Ciencias Penales y Sociales (Institute of Comparative Studies in Penal and Social Sciences), Innova, Fundación Grupo Sophia and Foro del Sector Social (Social Sector Forum).

24 CELS, ADC and Inter-American Dialogue, ‘Principios fundamentales para la promoción de leyes de acceso a la información’; FARN, El acceso a la información pública, el ambiente y el desarrollo sustentable, Manual no. 3 (Buenos Aires, 1997)Google Scholar.

25 Interview with Roberto Saba, executive director, ADC, 11 March 2003.

26 To illustrate, Roberto de Michele, director of the Transparency Policies Department (1999–2002), had served on Poder Ciudadano's administrative board. The ‘oasis’ idea was voiced during interviews with María Baron, director, Área de Transparencia, CIPPEC, 11 Feb. 2003; Juana Kweitel, institutional coordinator, CELS, 3 April 2003; and Roberto Saba, executive director, ADC, 11 March 2003.

27 Interview with Néstor Baragli, principal analyst, Dirección de Planificación de Políticas de Transparencia, 20 March 2003.

28 ADC, CELS, FARN, Poder Ciudadano and INECIP, ‘Requisitos mínimos para una ley de acceso a la información pública.’

29 ‘Ahora, el PJ quiere libre acceso de la información pública’, Infocívica.org.ar, 24 March 2003.

30 Interview with María Baron.

31 Interview with Néstor Baragli.

32 Transparency International, ‘Global Corruption Barometer: A 2002 Pilot Survey of International Attitudes, Expectations and Priorities on Corruption’ (2003), available at www.transparency.md/Docs/TI_GCB2003_en.pdf.

33 Interviews with Norberto Borzese and Carlos March.

34 Foro Social para la Transparencia, ‘Leyes de Mayo’, 2002.

35 See, for example, ‘Lobby cívico en pos de la ley de acceso a la información pública’, Infocívica.org.ar, 6 Dec. 2002.

36 Alejandro Carrió, ADC, ‘Virtudes y defectos de una reforma fundamental’, La Nación, 30 Nov. 2004.

37 Interview with Carlos March.

38 Keck and Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders.

39 ADC, ‘Relatoría Seminario Internacional Sobre Acceso a la Información Pública’ (2005), available at www.adc.org.ar/sw_contenido.php?id=329.

40 La Nación, 9 May 2003. After the law eventually died, Rodríguez and fellow ARI Deputy Elisa Carrió, a strong supporter since the late 1990s, introduced bills to keep the reform alive.

41 Interview with Norberto Borzese.

42 In December 2002, for the second time, Duhalde did not include the bill on the legislative agenda, contributing to a frustrating pattern of postponement and multiple failures to meet quorum. The bill passed in a special session instigated by Peronists (Gerardo Conte Grand and Julio Gutiérrez, among others), partly in response to CSO demands (‘Ahora, el PJ quiere libre acceso de la información pública’, Infocívica.org.ar, 24 March 2003).

43 For further discussion of child advocates and their preoccupation with social issues, see Risley, Amy, ‘From “Perverse” to “Progressive”?: Advocating for the Rights and Well-Being of Argentina's Children’, International Journal of Children's Rights (forthcoming)Google Scholar.

44 Additional examples of CSOs active in children's issues include Anahí, El Arca, the Asociación Cristiana de Jóvenes (Christian Youth Association, YMCA), Fundación Emmanuel, Hacer Lugar, the Centro Integral de Rehabilitacion Social Argentino (Centre for Social Rehabilitation), Fundación Pelota de Trapo, Surcos, and the Unión de Mujeres de la Argentina (Union of Argentine Women). The groups that were most involved in advocacy when this research was conducted were not as well resourced, in terms of funding, staff and administrative capacity, as most of the NGOs that participated in the FOI campaign.

45 The Abuelas' mission is the identification and restitution of ‘children of the disappeared’ who were kidnapped or born in clandestine detention centres and then given to other families through illicit adoptions during the dictatorship.

46 Maclure, Richard and Sotelo, Melvin, ‘Children's Rights and the Tenuousness of Local Coalitions: A Case Study in Nicaragua’, Journal of Latin American Studies, 36: 1 (2004), pp. 85–108CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

47 Interview with Nora Schulman, executive director, CASACIDN, 11 March 2003. See also Inés González Bombal and Candelaria Garay, ‘Incidencia de ONGs en políticas sociales: el caso del Comité de Seguimiento y Aplicación de la Convención sobre los Derechos del Niño’, Documento CEDES Serie Sociedad Civil y Desarrollo Social (Buenos Aires, 2000).

48 Interview with Facundo Hernández, member, Colectivo, 24 March 2003.

49 Interviews with Facundo Hernández, Nora Schulman and Nora Pulido, member, ADI, 4 April 2003.

50 Friedman and Hochstetler, ‘Can Civil Society Organizations Solve the Crisis?’.

51 UNICEF, ‘Informe anual de actividades 2003’ (Buenos Aires: UNICEF, 2003), available at www.unicef.org/argentina/spanish/informe2003.pdf.

52 In 2004, nearly 7 per cent of children between five and 13 years of age were working in urban and rural communities in several regions: Ministerio de Trabajo, Empleo y Seguridad Social y Oficina Internacional del Trabajo, ‘Trabajo infantil y adolescente en cifras: síntesis de la primera encuesta y resultados de la región GBA’ (2006), available at www.trabajo.gov.ar/left/estadisticas/DocumentosSUBWEB/area1/documentos/libro%20gba.pdf.

53 On juvenile justice in Argentina, see Méndez, Emilio García, Infancia y democracia en la Argentina: la cuestión de la responsabilidad penal de los adolescentes (Buenos Aires: Ediciones del Signo, 2004)Google Scholar; and Raffo, Héctor Angel, Menores infractores y libertad asistida: los cinco puntos (Buenos Aires: Ediciones La Rocca, 2000)Google Scholar. On criminal justice more generally, see Barreneche, Osvaldo, Dentro de la ley, todo: la justicia criminal de Buenos Aires en la etapa formativa del sistema penal moderno de la Argentina (La Plata, Buenos Aires: Ediciones al Margen, 2001)Google Scholar; and Beloff, Mary Ana, Bovino, Alberto and Courtis, Christian (eds.), Cuadernos de la cárcel: edición especial de ‘No hay derecho’ (Buenos Aires, 1991)Google Scholar.

54 Grugel and Peruzzotti, ‘Grounding Global Norms’.

55 CELS, ‘Presentación Ante el Comité de Derechos del Niño: cuestiones a considerar en la evaluación del Segundo Informe Periódico de Argentina en cumplimiento del Art. 44 de la Convención Sobre Derechos del Niño’ (Buenos Aires, undated). In 2003, more than 15,000 children and teens were institutionalised in Buenos Aires Province alone (see Grugel and Peruzzotti, ‘Grounding Global Norms’).

56 Interviews with anonymous activists, March and April 2003.

57 Marta Pesenti, ‘Legislación Penal Juvenil: las trampas del discurso’ (2004), available at http://enj.org/portal/biblioteca/penal/penal_juvenil/30.pdf.

58 Federación Agrupamiento de ONGs (FADO), untitled pamphlet (2002).

59 Interview with anonymous activist, April 2003.

60 Interview with Adriana Gugliotta, UNICEF Argentina, 11 April 2003.

61 Interviews with Facundo Hernández, Nora Pulido and Nora Schulman. See also Colectivo, ‘Informe de organizaciones no gubernamentales argentinas sobre la aplicación de la Convención Sobre Derechos del Niño’ (2002).

62 Colectivo, ‘Informe de organizaciones no gubernamentales’, p. 5.

63 Interview with Nora Schulman.

64 Ibid.

65 Interview with anonymous activist, April 2003. Other governmental and non-governmental actors, including members of NGOs that participated in public service provision and the institutionalisation of children, remained beholden to the patronato culture and resisted reform (Grugel and Peruzzotti, ‘Grounding Global Norms’).

66 Marco Giugni and Florence Passy, ‘Contentious Politics in Complex Societies: New Social Movements between Conflict and Cooperation’, in Marco Giugni, Doug McAdam and Charles Tilly (eds.), From Contention to Democracy (New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 1998), pp. 81–108.

67 Interview with Cielo Salviolo, executive secretary, CASACIDN, 1 Dec. 2006.

68 ‘Grounding Global Norms’, p. 50.

69 Ibid., p. 49. The extent to which this change in framing correlates with the groups' higher levels of policy involvement is not clear; further research is therefore needed.

70 Ibid., p. 44.

71 Interview with Cielo Salviolo.

72 Grugel, Jean and Peruzzotti, Enrique, ‘Claiming Rights under Global Governance: Children's Rights in Argentina’, Global Governance, 13 (2007), p. 209Google Scholar.

73 Ibid.

74 Rosemberg, Jaime, ‘Es ley la protección integral de la infancia’, La Nación, 29 Sep. 2005Google Scholar.

75 Grugel and Peruzzotti, ‘Grounding Global Norms’.

76 ADC, ‘Relatoría Seminario’.

77 Asociación de Entidades Periodísticas Argentinas (Association of Argentine Journalists' Organisations, ADEPA), ‘Derecho de acceso a la información pública: pedido de ADEPA a los senadores’, La Nación, 1 Dec. 2004.

78 ‘El Gobierno no cumple un fallo de la justicia sobre el INDEC’, El Comercio Online, 13 Aug. 2009, available at www.elcomercioonline.com.ar/articulos/50028929-El-Gobierno-no-cumple-un-fallo-de-la-justicia-sobre-el-INDEC.html/.

79 Ibid.

80 González Bombal, ‘Organizaciones de la sociedad civil e incidencia’.

81 Rodrigo Villar, ‘De la participación a la incidencia de las OSC en políticas públicas’, in González Bombal and Villar (eds.), Organizaciones de la sociedad civil, pp. 13–30.

82 Interview with Carlos March.