The Crucible of Local Politics

Abstract

REPORT ON LOCAL POLITICS The Crucible of Local Politics Local and state politics have turned out to be the most viable arenas in which the left can compete for power, experiment with progressive reforms, and learn how to govern. grassroots movements in Latin America have managed to influence national politics at critical junctures in several countries, the left has fared poorly in recent national elections. Since the region's widespread turn to elected civilian rule, political parties that call for participato- ry social policies and redistributive eco- nomic reforms have had little role in governing at the national level. At most, left parties have become very junior partners in centrist governments, as in Chile and Venezuela, or institutional- ized minority oppositions with partial veto power, as in Brazil, Mexico, Uruguay, El Salvador and Nicaragua. Pro-business parties are staying in power by successfully marketing eco- nomic stability to fearful and cautious national voters. But state power is not limited to the commanding heights alone. If one looks at electoral contests for local and state offices in the 1990s, alternative parties-including those that are unconventional but not strictly speak- ing of the left-have done quite well. The last decade has seen a dramatic weakening of both political-party struc- Stures and ideological appeals through- out the region. In their search for hon- Sest, transparent, accountable and effi- Jonathan Fox is the author of The Politics of Food in Mexico: State Power and Social Mobilization (Cornell, 1992), and is currently doing research on the World Bank's role in Latin American social programs. XXIX, NO 1 VOL XXIX, No 1 JuLY/AuG 199515 JULY/AUG 1995 While BY JONATHAN FOX cient governance, voters in Latin America's cities have been remarkably willing to experiment with alternative candidates. This willingness to support the opposition does not always favor the left-for instance, Guadalajara, Mexico's second largest city, recently elected its first opposition mayor from the far-right wing of the National Action Party (PAN). Nevertheless, local and state politics have turned out to be the most viable arenas in which the left can compete for power, experi- ment with progressive reforms, and learn how to govern. The balance sheet is surprising: of Latin America's dozen largest cities with elected governments-mayors of Mexico City and Buenos Aires are still presidentially appointed-nine were governed by left or center-left mayors at some point over the past decade.' The capital cities of Venezuela, Uruguay and Paraguay, for example, all recently elected radical mayors; BogotA just elected an anarchist university profes- sor as mayor; and Lima was governed by the United Left in the 1980s. The Brazilian experience is the most strik- ing. In the 1988 local elections, the Workers Party (PT) won mayoralties in cities acounting for 40% of the national economy, including Sdo Paulo, the largest city in South America. The PT won two successive elections in the industrial city of Porto Alegre, as well as an overwhelming majority in 1992 elections in even larger Belo Horizonte,