The Impact of State-Promoted Participation in Democracy and Development: A Comparison of Venezuela and Mexico
type: CreativeWork
description: During the past two decades participatory democracy policies came to be seen as a useful alternative to address high inequality and lack of meaningful political representation allowed by clientelist politics in various parts of the world. This project explores the question: what is the impact that state-promoted participation has on democracy and development, the two key areas that political reformers in Latin America attempted to improve at the turn of the millennium? The hypotheses that this project proposes in response to that question are that participatory policies do not underperform neoliberal policies on macroeconomic or human development; that state-promoted participation strengthens social capital and clientelism hinders it; and that state-promoted participation strengthens democratic values and clientelism hinders them. The macroeconomic and human development hypothesis is self-explanatory. However, the introduction of the concept of social capital is required here as part of the causal mechanism that explains the impact that clientelism and participatory policies have on democracy. This study uses two cases that represent both ends of the political and economic policy spectrums: neoliberal Mexico under the PAN governments of 2000–2012, which broke a 70-year monopoly of the PRI, and participatory democracy in socialist Venezuela, where Hugo Chávez’s 1998 election broke the 40-year political monopoly of two centrist and elitist parties. The new political beginnings in these countries resulted in similar achievements in economic and human development, and in divergent and complex trajectories in terms of clientelism and participation.
abstract: During the past two decades participatory democracy policies came to be seen as a useful alternative to address high inequality and lack of meaningful political representation allowed by clientelist politics in various parts of the world. This project explores the question: what is the impact that state-promoted participation has on democracy and development, the two key areas that political reformers in Latin America attempted to improve at the turn of the millennium? The hypotheses that this project proposes in response to that question are that participatory policies do not underperform neoliberal policies on macroeconomic or human development; that state-promoted participation strengthens social capital and clientelism hinders it; and that state-promoted participation strengthens democratic values and clientelism hinders them. The macroeconomic and human development hypothesis is self-explanatory. However, the introduction of the concept of social capital is required here as part of the causal mechanism that explains the impact that clientelism and participatory policies have on democracy. This study uses two cases that represent both ends of the political and economic policy spectrums: neoliberal Mexico under the PAN governments of 2000–2012, which broke a 70-year monopoly of the PRI, and participatory democracy in socialist Venezuela, where Hugo Chávez’s 1998 election broke the 40-year political monopoly of two centrist and elitist parties. The new political beginnings in these countries resulted in similar achievements in economic and human development, and in divergent and complex trajectories in terms of clientelism and participation.
author: Romero, Domenico
keywords: Comparative Politics, participatory democracy, participation, clientelism, social capital, deepening democracy, human development
date published: 2017-09-01T07:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:59:21Z
provider: City University of New York - Graduate Center
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York