Democracy and the Public Space in Latin America

Unlike many theorists, Avritzer builds his case empirically. He looks at human rights movements in Argentina and Brazil, neighbourhood 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 "participary budgeting" in two Brazilian cities. Ultimatley, the concept of such a space beyond the reach 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.