Today, Brazil is celebrated as a laboratory for popular, participatory forms of government. However, no political project can exist entirely outside the power relations from which it emerges. Participatory Democracy and the Entanglements of the State offers a fascinating window into the power relations between political appointees, public officials, and local community activists in a Brazil still emerging from its autocratic past. Drawing on long-term ethnographic research, Victor Albert provides a critical analysis of citizen participation in Santo Andre, in the region of Greater Sao...

Today, Brazil is celebrated as a laboratory for popular, participatory forms of government. However, no political project can exist entirely outside the power relations from which it emerges. Participatory Democracy and the Entanglements of the State offers a fascinating window into the power relations between political appointees, public officials, and local community activists in a Brazil still emerging from its autocratic past. Drawing on long-term ethnographic research, Victor Albert provides a critical analysis of citizen participation in Santo Andre, in the region of Greater Sao...