New Democratic Spaces at the Grassroots? Popular Participation in Latin American Local Governments

1997 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 753-770 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerd Schonwalder
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Popular Participation ◽  
Democratic Spaces

scholarly journals Elections and local government performance in Brazil

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (83) ◽  
pp. 580-599
Author(s):  
Pedro Luiz Costa Cavalcante
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Electoral Competition ◽  
Institutional Arrangement ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Government Performance ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
National Analysis

Abstract The 1988 federal Constitution introduced a complex and innovative institutional arrangement that not only reestablished political rights and democratic procedures, but also reinforced decentralization as a fundamental guideline for policy implementation in Brazil. As a result, municipalities have become pivotal actors in the policymaking process. Scholars of Latin American politics have given much emphasis to the causes and determinants of decentralization, but not much has been done toward a more general understanding of how this increased decentralization has affected policymaker behavior and policy outcomes. This paper aims to do exactly that. Specifically, it investigates how institutional arrangements and electoral competition affect local government performance. The theoretical basis is the electoral democratic theory that broadly highlights elections as instruments of citizen control in retrospective and prospective voting approaches. The research employs a large-N cross sub-national analysis based on a dataset of electoral, partisan, socioeconomic and public financial information collected from over 5500 municipalities. Local governments’ performance, our dependent variables, are synthetic indicators formulated from 2009 nationwide surveys on public education, health, housing and welfare services. The OLS regression results confirm the hypothesis that politics variables do matter in how politicians make decisions and implement policy under the new Brazilian democratic Era. The empirical evidences suggest that electoral competition does not present a direct effect on government performance, however, ideology and citizen participation do. Therefore, this paper helps to expand our understanding of a political system’s impact on public policy outputs, which is extremely important not only for academic purpose but also to support policymakers’ decisions.

scholarly journals Looking Through the Mirror: the pratice of techinical assistance to social movements in Brazil seen by uruguayan experience

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
João Paulo O. Huguenin
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Self Management ◽  
Popular Participation ◽  
Housing Cooperatives ◽  
Whole Process ◽  
The Government ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The City ◽  
Political Scene

The Uruguayan model of housing cooperatives emerged in the 1960s from movements in civil society. This experience was adapted to Latin American realities and arrived in Brazil in the 1980s, along with the redemocaratizac?a?o process, which made the emergence of new actors on the political scene and recon gured the action of housing movements, which besides claiming passed propose projects with popular participation. The success of the self-managed housing production depends on three factors: the government, responsible for housing policy for self-management, the organized population, which will manage the project, and tech- nical advice, support of the whole process. In this article we seek to re ect on this third factor, that is, the possibilities and limits of performance of technical advisory services in the Brazilian context. To achieve this objective, the Uruguayan experience as a case con- trol. The choice of this approach proves to be useful both to under- stand our reality, and to visualize other possibilities. The contexts of each country led to di erent forms of assimilation of housing self-management. While in Uruguay pilot experiences have result- ed in a national law regulating the housing cooperatives in Brazil had experiences in several municipalities that until 2004 did not succeed in becoming a national policy. The exponent of these ex- periences is the FUNAPS-Comunita?rio, launched in 1992 by the City of Sa?o Paulo. However, using this case as an example reduces the issue and mutes other successful experiences. Therefore, we will use the Rio experience, which although small, has peculiarities, such as the adoption of collective ownership in some cooperatives. 

Municipal E-Government Services in Emerging Economies

2012 ◽  
pp. 198-226
Author(s):  
Manuel Pedro Rodríguez Bolívar ◽  
Maria del Carmen Caba Pérez ◽  
Antonio Manuel López Hernández
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Capital Cities ◽  
Government Services ◽  
Government Reforms ◽  
Great Scope ◽  
Latin American And Caribbean ◽  
The Web

This chapter examines and discusses the approach taken by local governments in developing countries to using the Web as a means of providing e-services. In particular, we focus on the capital cities of Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries to discover whether their public administrations are using the Internet to transform how they interact with citizens through the delivery of online public sector services, thus advancing a benchmarking process. An empirical study was carried out of e-government services in these cities, focusing on the content of e-services by applying the CapGemini (2009) methodology, which has been widely used in prior research. Our findings confirm the existence of a wide variety of e-services among the cities examined, with many of these local administrations remaining unaware of the possibility of using Internet to facilitate the delivery of public sector services. Therefore, there is great scope for improvement in the field of e-government. Reforms in public administration are needed in order to make government more participative and open. Likewise, setting effective policies to ensure e-inclusion is the key to the future of LAC’s new empowered societies, with a more visible voice and more chances to express their concerns.

The Disclosure of Sustainability Information in the Local Governments of the Pacific Alliance

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 557-578
Author(s):  
Jeimi Maribel León-Silva ◽  
Rosa Maria Dasi-Gonzalez ◽  
Vicente Montesionos-Julve
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Financial Information ◽  
Global Reporting Initiative ◽  
Environmental Aspects ◽  
Economic Information ◽  
Related Information ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Sustainability Disclosure

Requests from different categories of users for information on sustainability have manifested the need to disclose non-financial information. The objective of this document is to analyze the level of disclosure of sustainability information from local governments of the Pacific Alliance countries, performing content analysis of the entities’ websites in the year 2018. Results show that local governments of the Pacific Alliance are interested in disclosing sustainability-related information, based on the aspects considered in the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines, but their level of disclosure is low, achieving 40% of the criteria assessed and mainly focused on general and economic information, with lower level of disclosure of social and environmental aspects. This work contributes to the literature on the characteristics of sustainability disclosure in local governments in developing countries such as from the Latin American zone.

scholarly journals PRELÚDIOS DE UM CONSTITUCIONALISMO POPULAR E LATINO-AMERICANO NO BRASIL? PARTICIPAÇÃO DEMOCRÁTICA PÓS-88 E QUEDA DO DECRETO LEI 8.243/2014 - DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5216/rfd.v41i2.47930

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 169
Author(s):  
Maria Helena Fonseca Faller ◽  
Katya Kozicki
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Fundamental Principle ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
Positive Outcomes ◽  
Executive Order ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
Popular Participation ◽  
De Se

Resumo: Este artigo pretende avaliar a proposta do constitucionalismo latino-americano e do constitucionalismo popular como possibilidade de se repensar as democracias constitucionais contemporâneas, fundamentadas na presença da cidadania na definição da política e da Constituição. A partir disso, analisa em que medida a democracia brasileira pós- 88 obteve resultados positivos no que se refere a participação popular na vida política e na construção dos direitos constitucionais, verificando qual contexto permitiu a derrubada do Decreto-Lei 8.243/2014. Identifica, por fim, os limites institucionais existentes à participação do cidadão na política, sem deixar de perceber prelúdios de uma potencialidade democrática ainda a ser experimentada.  Abstract: This article intends to evaluate the Latin-American and Popular constitutionalism proposals as possible ways to rethink contemporary forms of constitutional democracy based on the fundamental principle of citizen participation in the construction of Politics and Constitutional laws.  From this, it analyses the extent to which the Brazilian democracy pos-1988 generated positive outcomes in terms of popular participation in its political life and in the establishment of constitutional rights, considering the context that led to the overturn of the Executive order n. 8,243/2014. At last, it identifies existing institutional limitations to citizen participation in politics, while considering the preludes of a democratic potential yet to be experienced.

scholarly journals Between instrumental reason and applied social engineering: the Latin American educational response to Covid-19

Paakat ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (20) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Manuel Villarruel Fuentes ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Social Engineering ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Instrumental Reason ◽  
Educational Strategies ◽  
Commercial Development ◽  
Contextual Framework ◽  
Information And Communication

The sudden arrival of the pandemic caused by the new coronavirus showed the most visible face of Latin American societies, so marked by their ancestral rejection of the economic and commercial development models imposed by neoliberalism, and so historically aggrieved by local governments that have failed to respond to their legitimate aspirations for equality, inclusion and human development. In this contextual framework, education is subject to new contradictions, categorically exposed when it is demanded to maintain its status quo, without considering the precarious conditions of infrastructure and technological equipment with which the academic dynamics were developed at all educational levels. On this argumentative basis, an analysis is presented on the response of governments to the health contingency, particularly in their educational strategies, centered on the massive use of information and communication technologies, and three categories of analysis are considered: the institutional educational response to the pandemic, the role of teachers in the state's response to the crisis and the social perception of the implementation of educational strategies designed by governments; all of the above framed in the Latin American context.

scholarly journals Recovering Subsidized Housing Developments in Northern México: The Critical Role of Public Space in Community Building in the Context of a Crime and Violence Crisis

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (19) ◽  
pp. 5473
Author(s):  
Montemayor
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Northern Mexico

México has subsidized and built millions of low-income homes and thousands of subdivisions in the period of 2000–2012. These occupied and expanded urban peripheries far away from work, learn, service, commerce, and recreational amenity centers. These communities had no chance to offer a high quality of life. They were rapidly abandoned and deteriorated physically and socially. Amid the still ongoing crime and violence, inhabitants experienced a loss of trust in their neighbors, a deep sense of insecurity, and consequently reduced public life and activity to a minimum. This article describes and reflects on a project implemented in two neighborhoods of two northern México cities, with the objective of mitigating crime and violence, while recovering public spaces in these communities. The project implemented a hybridized methodology, including Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), attention to Youth at Risk, and the prevention of Gender Based Violence. All these were integrated transversally with a community participation approach incorporated throughout the project actions. This article reflects on the successes and failures of this pilot project, as demonstrated by differentiated results between a neighborhood located in Chihuahua City and another in the municipality of Guadalupe, within Monterrey’s Metro Area. The lessons learned, include the relevance of local political timing and interests, the importance of accurate and manageable geographic definitions for the areas of implementation, the role of NGOs, the importance of local educational institutions—in particular schools of architecture and the need for community oriented strategic consultants, to appropriately advise local governments in the implementation of projects of this nature. The article demonstrates the effort to make it accessible, and to anticipate the issues and opportunities as many Mexican, and other Latin American countries and cities engage in the spatial and social recovery of public spaces, neighborhoods, communities, and cities after years of high crime and violence.

scholarly journals Promoting Online Transparency to Help Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals: An Empirical Study of Local Governments in Latin America

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1837
Author(s):  
Tamara Guerrero-Gómez ◽  
Andrés Navarro-Galera ◽  
David Ortiz-Rodríguez
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Systemic Variables ◽  
Latin American Countries

Although transparency on the sustainability of public services is an issue of urgent interest to both governments and academics, previous research in this area has mainly focused on developed European countries, and has paid insufficient attention to areas that are still developing, such as many Latin American countries. The aim of this study is to identify factors that promote transparency on sustainability by local governments in Latin America, in the view that greater transparency will help them meet the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Therefore, using content analysis and following the GRI guidelines, we analyze the economic, social and environmental information published on the websites of 200 large local governments in 18 Latin American countries. In addition, using linear regression and calculating the corresponding Spearman coefficients, we analyze the influence of idiosyncratic and systemic variables on the volume of information disclosed. Our findings show that certain factors—population size, education level, unemployment, the quality of legislation and political corruption—affect transparency on sustainability. The conclusions drawn from this analysis enable us to identify useful measures for enhancing transparency on sustainability, including the reform of transparency laws and the analysis and disclosure of citizens’ information demands.

scholarly journals "COVID-19: Network Effectiveness of Intermunicipal Self-Organized Response in Chile"

2020 ◽  
pp. 5-23
Author(s):  
Karina ARIAS YURISCH ◽  
Karina RETAMAL SOTO ◽  
Camila RAMOS FUENZALIDA
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Management ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Disaster Preparedness ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Metropolitan Region ◽  
Effective Response ◽  
Network Effectiveness ◽  
Self Organized

In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, public officials are called on to implement different strategies in order to respond effectively. One of the lessons of emergency management research is that effective response is unlikely without collaboration. Research on collaborative emergency management has focused on measuring the effectiveness of intergovernmental and intersectoral relationships, but little is known about the performance of inter-jurisdictional collaboration. This paper seeks to measure the network effectiveness of intermunicipal self-organized response to Covid-19. It uses a network analysis approach to compare planned and actual emergency management networks operating in the Santiago Metropolitan Region of Chile. Content analysis of 202 formal agreements established by municipalities in 2009-2019 was used to capture the planned network. The actual network was depicted by collecting original data through an online survey that represented the 96% of the local governments located in this Latin American city. The results show a structural gap between planned and actual networks and reveal effectiveness problems associated with the disaster preparedness phase. However, an emergent intermunicipal network has supported collaborative response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The study provides lessons for policymakers, public managers and researchers in the collaborative emergency management field.

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