Assessing three visions of democracy in Latin America: Civil society and political institutions in historical perspective

For many observers, the future of democratization in Latin America hinges on the extent to which civil society can be engaged effectively into more inclusive political arrangements vis-à-vis the state. For some, civil society and NGOs can provide more effective controls over state agencies, so as to secure more transparent, participatory and efficient governments. We will call this the liberal-democratic model of civil society-state relationships. For others, the pursuit of more inclusive and equitable political arrangements requires greater space for participation by mobilized social movements (e.g., landless peasants, the unemployed, and/or labor). We will call this the radical-democratic model of civil society-state relationship. These two models differ greatly; the advocates of both warn us, however, against the current rise of a third way of linking civil society and the state, involving the co-opting of civil society by the state, through the purposeful maintenance of social inequality and the deployment of clientelism and patronage. We will call this the populist model. How should we assess the shifting relative importance of these three modes of organization over time? How do they relate with the quest with greater democratization today, especially in the context of the changes brought about by globalization? To assess these questions, this paper uses original data to analytically explore how civil society association has been articulated through competing but complementary patterns of action and organization (that we label as those of “insiders” and “outsiders”); identifies when and how the transformation of these two patterns through the 20^th century was associated with the emergence and development of innovative institutional arrangements embodied in each of the three models discussed above; and, finally, argues that our focus on these two types of activism helps us understand the renewed importance of populist mobilization among current democratic regimes in the region.