Between liberal and participatory democracy: Tensions and dilemmas of leftist politics in Brazil

Journal of Latin American Studies

Volumn 38, Issue 1, 2006, Pages 35-63

  Schönleitner, Günther ^a  

^a Austrian Development Agency (ADA)   (Austria)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CIVIL SOCIETY; DEMOCRACY; POLITICAL PARTICIPATION; POLITICS;

BRAZIL; SOUTH AMERICA;

EID: 33747655714     PISSN: 0022216X     EISSN: 1469767X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0022216X05000283     Document Type: Article

References (57)

1. The councils include representatives of the local government, health providers, health workers, and user organisations like trade unions, neighbourhood associations, patient organisations, etc. The user organisations enjoy 'parity' in relation to all other groups, i.e. at least 50 per cent of the seats.
2. By 'civicness' I mean the characteristics of civic organising and the attitudes and practices of civil society actors towards the polity. Drawing on Putnam, I took membership in associations as a proxy for civicness.
3. There are few empirical data on the patterns of 'civicness' across Brazilian states and municipalities. Yet, two data sets from Brazil's statistics agency IBGE demonstrate variations in associational life, one across six states, and the other across metropolitan regions. (1) Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios (PNAD) - Suplemento Político-Social (Brasília, 1988) and (2) Pesquisa Mensal de Emprego - Abril 1996: Associativismo, Representação de Interesses e Intermediação Política (Rio de Janeiro, 1996). They confirm that the south is most and the north-east least 'civic'. In 1988 Rio Grande do Sul had an average membership rate of 15.27 per cent of the adult population, more than three times the rates of Bahia and Pernambuco. The 1996 study on six metropolitan regions confirmed these contrasts. Porto Alegre had significantly higher rates of membership in unions and 'community organs' than the other five metropolitan regions, including Recife and Salvador. The 1996 data include Camaragibe and Camaçari, but they do not cover municipalities in the hinterland, such as my southern cases. Yet, in Rio Grande do Sul we can assume that the northern parts of the state are no less civic than Porto Alegre since the data for the metropolitan region show no difference between the capital and peripheral municipalities. All other metropolitan regions had higher membership rates in the capital than in the surrounding municipalities. Moreover, a study on 'regional development, political culture and social capital' in Rio Grande do Sul confirms this assumption: Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul - Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas, Desenvolvimento regional, cultura política e capital social: Pesquisa empírica coma subsídio à atividade parlamentar no Rio Grande do Sul (Porto Alegre, 2001). In general, regions characterised by historical European settler communities had the highest rates of membership in associations, even higher than the region including Porto Alegre. The two 'civic' cases of my selection are situated in the state's micro-regions with the strongest associational life.
4. The case selection aimed at theoretical insight rather than being representative of Brazil's over 5,500 municipalities. While seeking variations in government commitment and civicness, I sought to keep other variables as constant as possible: Comparable size; a government that was re-elected in 2000; and the highest degree of decentralisation of health care ('full local management').
5. In both PT-governed cases PB schemes had been implemented. Although they were not the focus of the study, they did enter the analysis as part of the contextual factors that shaped the overall patterns of state-civil society interaction.
6. Francisco Panizza, 'Beyond "Delegative Democracy": "Old Politics" and "New Economics" in Latin America,' Journal of Latin American Studies, vol. 32 (2000), pp. 737-63.
7. Kurt Weyland, Democracy without Equity: Failures of Reform in Brazil (Pittsburgh, 1996), p. 5.
8. Barry Ames, The Deadlock of Democracy in Brazi' (Ann Arbor, 2001), p. 4.
9. Leonardo Avritzer, Democracy and the Public Space in Latin America (Princeton, 2002).
10. Ibid., pp. 49-50.
11. Robert Putnam, Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (Princeton, 1993), p. 104.
12. Leonardo Avritzer, Democracy and the Public Space in Latin America (Princeton, 2002), p. 6.
13. See C. Boix and D. Posner, 'Social Capital: Explaining its Origins and Effects on Government Performance,' British Journal of Political Science, vol. 28, no. 4, (1998), p. 687.
14. Kenneth J. Arrow, Social Choice and Individual Values, 2nd edition (New York, 1963).
15. John Dryzek, Deliberative Democracy and Beyond: Liberals, Critics, Contestations (Oxford, 2000), p. 44.
16. Jon Elster (ed.), Deliberative Democracy (Cambridge and New York, 1998), p. 12.
17. John Dryzek, Deliberative Democracy and Beyond, p. 47.
18. Amy Gutmann and D. Thompson, Democracy and Disagreement (Cambridge, MA, 1996).
19. See J. Knight and J. Johnson, 'What Sort of Political Equality Does Deliberative Democracy Require?,' in J. Bohman and W. Rehg (eds.), Deliberative Democracy: Essays on Reason and Politics (Cambridge, MA, 1997), pp. 292ff.
20. J. Bohman, 'Deliberative Democracy and Effective Social Freedom: Capabilities, Resources, and Opportunities,' in J. Bohman and W. Rehg (eds.), Deliberative Democracy: Essays on Reason and Politics (Cambridge, MA, 1997).
21. Gutmann and Thompson, Democracy and Disagreement, p. 128.
22. Ibid., p. 144.
23. See J. Cohen, 'Procedure and Substance in Deliberative Democracy,' In J. Bohman and W. Rehg (eds.), Deliberative Democracy: Essays on Reason and Politics (Cambridge, MA, 1997).
24. Ibid., p. 426.
25. Gutmann and Thompson, Democracy and Disagreement, p. 154.
26. Dryzek, Deliberative Democracy and Beyond, p. 104.
27. Merilee S. Grindle, Audacious Reforms: Institutional Invention and Democracy in Latin America (Baltimore, 2000), pp. 24-5.
28. Ibid., p. 28.
29. P. Ransome, Antonio Gramsci: A New Introduction (London, 1992), p. 135.
30. Ibid., p. 136.
31. N. P. Mouzelis, Politics in the Semi-Periphery: Early Parliamentarism and Late Industrialisation in the Balkans and Latin America (London, 1986).
32. These figures are based on the state electoral authority (TRE).
33. This is much less than the average of the surrounding Rio Pardo valley (12.3 per cent) and only slightly more than the national average (around 5 per cent).
34. João Pedro Schmidt, Cultura política e comportamento eleitoral em Santa Cruz do Sul (Santa Cruz do Sul, 2003), p. 50.
35. C. H. Serra, J. I. Pires Lucas, R. Mincato, V. M. Guimarães and M. C. Mocellin, 'Formação política e movimentos sociais em Caxias do Sul: 1964-1985,' Relatório Final de Pesquisa, Universidade de Caxias do Sul, Centro de Ciências Humanas e da Comunicação (Caxias do Sul, 2002).
36. Dryzek, Deliberative Democracy and Beyond, p. 44.
37. See Jack Knight, Institutions and Social Conflict (Cambridge, 1992).
38. The legislatures found it difficult to question budgets drawn up by the executive with broad-based participation. When they eventually rejected budget bills because the government had vetoed their amendments, they had to back down after a political stand-off with the executive because PB carried stronger legitimacy.
39. Olle Törnquist, 'The Political Deficit of Substantial Democratisation,' in J. Harriss, K. Stokke and O. Törnquist (eds.), Politicising Democracy.
40. Peter Houtzager, 'Introduction: From Polycentrism to the Polity,' in P. Houtzager and M. Moore (eds.), Changing Paths: International Development and the New Politics of Inclusion (Ann Arbor, 2003).
41. Gianpaolo Baiocchi (ed.), Radicals in Power: The Workers' Party (PT) and Experiences of Urban Democracy in Brazil (London and New York, 2002).
42. Ibid.
43. See, for instance, T. Skocpol, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States (Cambridge, 1992)
44. P. Evans, 'Government Action, social capital and development: Reviewing the evidence on synergy,' World Development, vol. 24, no. 6 (1996), pp. 1119-32
45. M. Woolcock, 'Social Capital and Economic Development: Toward a Theoretical Synthesis and Policy Framework,' Theory and Society, vol. 27, no. 2 (1998), pp. 151-208.
46. Houtzager, 'Introduction: From Polycentrism to the Polity'.
47. T. Skocpol, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers, p. 41.
48. Peter Houtzager, 'Introduction: From Polycentrism to the Polity,' pp. 13-17.
49. Dryzek, Deliberative Democracy and Beyond, pp. 81-111.
50. Archon Fung and Erik O. Wright, Deepening Democracy: Institutional Innovations in Empowered Deliberative Democracy (London, New York, 2003), p. 263.
51. J. Cohen and J. Rogers, 'Power and Reason,' in A. Fung and E. O. Wright (eds.), Deepening Democracy: Institutional Innovations in Empowered Participatory Governance (London and New York, 2003).
52. Fung and Wright, Deepening Democracy, p. 260.
53. Ibid., pp. 282-5.
54. Cohen and Rogers, 'Power and Reason,' p. 249.
55. S. M. Lipset, 'The Social Requisites for Democracy Revisited: 1993 Presidential Address,' American Sociological Review, vol. 59 (1994), p. 12.
56. In his Lionel Robbins Memorial Lecture on 'Understanding Institutions' held at the LSE on 23-25 February 2004.
57. Ames, The Deadlock of Democracy in Brazil.