In the face of chronic poverty and inequality in Latin America, there is a growing understanding that “top down” poverty reduction programs have limited, if any, sustained impact on the core problem. Civil Society and Social Movements introduces its readers to the triumphs and disappointments of citizen engagement efforts with goals such as strengthening local government, empowering women, reducing rural poverty, and promoting small enterprises. If democracy and development ever have meaning for the nearly 300 million Latin Americans living in poverty today, such social movements will be an important part of the reason why. Read this book and learn about them.
Louis Wolf Goodman, Dean, School of International Service, American University, Washington DC