Democracy and the Public Space in Latin America

Leonardo Avritzer

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN:
  9780691090887
  9780691090870
• eBook ISBN:
  9781400825011
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: International Relations
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This is a bold new study of the recent emergence of democracy in Latin America. Leonardo Avritzer shows that traditional theories of democratization fall short in explaining this phenomenon. Scholars have long held that the postwar stability of Western Europe reveals that restricted democracy, or "democratic elitism," is the only realistic way to guard against forces such as the mass mobilizations that toppled European democracies after World War I. Avritzer challenges this view. Drawing on the ideas of Jürgen Habermas, he argues that democracy can be far more inclusive and can rely on a sphere of autonomous association and argument by citizens. He makes this argument by showing that democratic collective action has opened up a new "public space" for popular participation in Latin American politics.


Unlike many theorists, Avritzer builds his case empirically. He looks at human rights movements in Argentina and Brazil, neighborhood associations in Brazil and Mexico, and election-monitoring initiatives in Mexico. Contending that such participation has not gone far enough, he proposes a way to involve citizens even more directly in policy decisions. For example, he points to experiments in "participatory budgeting" in two Brazilian cities. Ultimately, the concept of such a space beyond the reach of state administration fosters a broader view of democratic possibility, of the cultural transformation that spurred it, and of the tensions that persist, in a region where democracy is both new and different from the Old World models.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter One. Democratic Theory and Democratization
• Chapter Two. Democratic Theory and the Formation of a Public Sphere
• Chapter Three. Democracy and the Latin American Tradition
• Chapter Four. The Transformation of the Latin American Pubic Space
• Chapter Five. Democratization in Latin America The Conflict between Public Practices and the Logic of Political Society
• Chapter Six. Participatory Publics in Brazil and Mexico The Compatibility of Public Deliberation and Complex Administration
• Chapter Seven. Concluding Remarks on the Democratizing Role of Participatory Publics
• Notes
• References