Deepening Local Democracy in Latin America: Participation, Decentralization, and the Left

“An incisive and thorough analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of experiences of participatory democracy in contemporary Latin America.” —F. E. Panizza, The London School of Economics and Political Science “Before leftist parties began electing presidents in Latin America at the turn of the century, they were electing mayors and experimenting with participatory forms of democracy at the municipal level. In this outstanding book, Benjamin Goldfrank explores the most important of these participatory experiments in Brazil, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Drawing from intensive field research and original public opinion surveys, Goldfrank analyzes why some participatory programs are more effective than others, and he carefully explains how these different outcomes relate to the institutional features of decentralization policies and the nature of partisan opposition. For anyone who seeks to understand the opportunities for—and the constraints on—the ‘deepening’ of democracy in contemporary Latin America, this insightful book is essential reading.” —Kenneth M. Roberts, Cornell University