Popular movements and patronage politics: Understanding demobilization processes in contemporary Argentina

Based on in-depth interviews and ethnographic fieldwork, this paper examines the dynamics of demobilization of poor people’s movements in a context of patronage politics. Processes by which social movement organizations (SMOs) are demobilized are usually seen as resulting from “cooptation” or “oligarchization.” I show that demobilization of poor people’s movements in a context dominated by patronage politics can also result from relational mechanisms creating a “double pressure.” In a setting where patronage is prevalent, participants in a social movement see their involvement in the organization as a way to voice rights but also to obtain concrete material benefits. Thus, leaders need to obtain resources and address the pressures created by constituents “from below.” While alliances with national political actors and the national state provide access to necessary resources, these alliances also create a pressure “from above” that poses obstacles for mobilization. Drawing on data culled from eleven months of fieldwork on an Argentine peasant movement, this paper inspects a scantly analyzed but crucial dimension of poor people’s movements in Latin America, namely, their interpenetrations with patronage politics. By scrutinizing this zone of interface we can better understand processes of demobilization, the effects of state pressures on SMOs, and the relational aspects of brokerage mechanisms.