These essays provide eloquent examples of the power of citizens to solve social problems in Latin America. It is an homage to the achievements of Juan Felipe Yriart who struggled with enormous energy to overcome the obstacles that democratic progress faces in the region. Arthur Domike has integrated a superb sample of collective civic engagement projects that clearly indicate that civil society is the key to achieving social justice and democratic governance throughout our hemisphere.
Gabriel Murillo Castaño, Professor, Universidad de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia
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
There is a tendency – visible among both Latin American governers as well as multilateral institutions – to view conflict as a problem, to condemn social mobilization as illegitimate and politically manipulated, and to denigrate those who protest as ill-informed. Yet such views are historically and theoretically ill-informed – for, without wishing to transpose a European model onto Latin American societies, it is the case that many of the inclusion-enhancing and redistributive institutions of social democracy have been won through mobilization and conflict rather than built through elite philanthropy or technocratic engineering. This important collection argues persuasively why mobilization and movements can and should be seen as important processes in the consolidation and deepening of Latin American democracies. The region’s elites and international institutions ignore the book’s important messages not so much at their own peril, but rather to the detriment of the quality of institution building and democratization in the region. One can only hope that they read these pages carefully and in detail. Required reading for all who profess commitment to a socially inclusive Latin America.
Anthony Bebbington, Professor of Nature, Society and Development, University of Manchester, UK
This is an essential book, both for its theme and for its approach: the study of recent experiences of civil society organizations in Latin America, and the lessons they provide for democratic systems. The style of government in our region tends to be top-down, limiting the participation of social movements. But in democracies, it is fundamental that their demands be heard, and that their conflicts be channeled in conciliatory processes; to deny this typically results in the escalation of local conflicts. Today the consolidation of democracy and good management of public policy require the strengthening of civil society. In the same vein, an efficient democratic state requires a strong civil society.
Carolina Tohá, member, Chilean House of Deputies
I celebrate the publication of this book … I am pleased that we initiated it during my presidency in the bank, and I congratulate all those who made it possible.
Enrique Iglesias, President Inter-American Development Bank, 1988-2005; Secretary-general of the Ibero-American Cooperation Secretariat, 2005-
Civil Society and Social Movements makes a needed contribution to the clarification of the role of organized citizenry to development in Latin America.
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“The best-laid plans of banks and men…”
(“or how development assistance is finally acknowledging the need to engender a demand for good governance to match the supply and insure the effectiveness of its measures.”)
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