"Intermediation and Representation in Latin America is an inspiring and very opportune book, which helps to understand the transformations faced by representative democracy in Latin America. The volume offers directions for students and researchers in order to analyse the changes promoted by the wave of democratic innovations through a new lens." (Yanina Welp, Democratization, Vol. 25 (5), August, 2017)
Preface
Philip Oxhorn
1. Introduction. Beyond Elections: Representation Circuits and Political Intermediation
Gisela Zaremberg, Adrian Gurza Lavalle and Valeria Guarneros-Meza
2. Political Intermediation and Public Policy in Brazil: Councils and Conferences in the Policy Spheres of Health and Women’s Rights
Wagner de Melo Romao, Adrian Gurza Lavalle and Gisela Zaremberg
3. Establishing Intermediaries in Developing Mechanisms of Citizen
Participation in La Silsa, Caracas, Venezuela
Graham Martin
4. Political Rights and Intermediation: Municipal Decentralization and Democratic Innovation in Uruguay
Martin Freigedo Pelaez
5. Bolivia: “Social Control” as the Fourth State Power 1994-2015
Moira Zuazo
6. Citizen Security in Mexico: Examining Municipal Bureaucracy From the View of the Intermediation-Representation Debate
Valeria Guarneros-Meza
7. Conflicts of Representation and Redistribution in the Mexican Labour World
Graciela Bensusán and Marta Subinas
8. The Political-Legal Representation Circuit of Human Rights Politics
Karina Ansolabehere and Paula Valle de Bethencourt
9. Conclusions and Future Research Agenda
Gisela Zaremberg, Adrian Gurza Lavalle and Valeria Guarneros-Meza
Gisela Zaremberg is Research Professor at Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO), Mexico.
Valeria Guarneros-Meza is Senior Lecturer in Politics and Public Policy at De Montfort University, UK.
Adrian Gurza-Lavalle is Associate Professor in the Political Science Department at the University of São Paulo, Brazil.
This book shows how the introduction of intermediation is relevant in studying public policy processes, as they are increasingly accompanied by grey spaces in public and non-public arenas that cannot be categorized as purely representative or purely participative. Instead, ‘hybrid’ mechanisms are developing in the policy-making process, which bring in new actors who either are unelected while being required to represent or advocate for the common good of others or are directly elected but challenged by identity/rights-based issues of the people they are required to act in the best interest of. By addressing five different Latin American countries and a wide range of case studies—from human rights, labour relations, neighbourhood management, municipal bureaucracies, social accountability, to complex national systems of citizen participation—this volume shows the versatility and validity of CIP as a tool for analysing public policy and understanding contemporary democratic innovation in Latin America.