5th ISA Forum of Sociology (6-11 July 2025)

According to various authors, the most important political problem of our time is summarized in two paradoxes. The first one posits that democracy as a political idea, has no competition, but democratic regimes are being attacked by multiple actors. The second one asserts that in Latin America the spread of democracy brought with it an enormous degradation of democratic practices. Pierre Rosanvallon argues that citizen disaffection and distrust with democracy can be counteracted by social movements. By "organizing distrust" the latter represent an important democratic potential that could, in his opinion, compensate for the erosion of trust in political institutions and democracy. A thesis that Donatella della Porta supports albeit following a different argument. For della Porta social movements present democratic innovations of deliberative and participatory practices that, in her view, can “save democracy”. Starting from this premises this session aims at exploring the potential and limits of the relationship between democracy and social movements, as well as examining the processes and mechanisms through which Latin American social movements can “save democracy”.