Suchergebnisse

Indigenous civil society in Latin America: continuity and change -- Collective action and Indigenous civil society: theoretical frameworks and background -- Ecuador: decline or strategic realignment? -- Bolivia: participation or controlled inclusion? -- Chile: continuing resistance, emerging renaissance -- Indigenous civil society in comparative perspective -- Indigenous civil society in the 21st century: looking forward.

The emergence of democratic institutional innovation in Latin America -- Theoretical origins of citizen participation -- Institutionalization of citizen participation in Venezuela, Ecuador and Chile : three models of participatory design -- Venezuela : radical participatory democracy -- Ecuador : radical discourse, dashed expectations -- Chile : pragmatic citizen participation -- Conclusions and prospects

AbstractParticipatory democrats argue that citizen engagement at the local level serves an important educational function. Through involvement in participatory mechanisms, citizens develop various skills, become better informed, and cultivate a greater sense of political efficacy. There has been considerable debate in the academic literature over the extent to which participation can produce these benefits, but deliberative and participatory theoretical approaches have been criticised for neglecting power dynamics within participatory mechanisms themselves, and for overlooking structural inequalities between women and men. Numerous critics have charged that participatory mechanisms tend to mask, but not eliminate, gender inequalities, particularly in societies where these remain firmly entrenched. While the theory on the educational function of participatory democracy is well developed, there remains a lack of empirical work on the impact of participation on women in Latin America, a region that has been at the forefront of democratic innovation. Based on extensive fieldwork in Venezuela, Ecuador and Chile, this article identifies the types of skills that women gain through participation, and questions the extent to which these reproduce traditional gender roles.

"Indigenous Politics and Resistance in Latin America: Continuity and Change" published on by Oxford University Press.