The Crisis of Political Representation and the Emergence of New Forms of Political Participation in Latin America

Abstract

This chapter aims to approach the new crisis of representation in South America. South America’s crisis of representation is double pronged: on the one hand, it is informed by the collapse of several traditional political parties in the Andean region and Venezuela, a fact commonly acknowledged by the literature. On the other hand, the impact of neo-liberalism in the collapse of the party system is under-estimated as well as the role of new forms of participation. The chapter approaches both issues and relates them to the emergence of new forms of participation. It concentrates on Brazilian, Chilean and Uruguayan experiments on participation and shows how they improve citizenship in two senses: improving the enhancement of social actor’s autonomy and in enhancing the access of the poor to public goods. Latin America has today a new tradition of political participation that has emerged after its recent democratization. Keywords:Andean region; citizenship; democratization; Latin America; neo-liberalism; political participation; South America; Venezuela