Impact of Populist Discourse and Governance Practices on Citizen Participation

• In Event: The Decay of the Pink Tide and the Rise of the Right in Latin America

Abstract

In the 2000s, Latin America witnessed an explosion of mechanisms designed to encourage and channel popular participation in decision-making. Many of these initiatives were established by populist leaders associated with the “Pink Tide” movement and promote a “radical” participatory democracy that challenges the liberal representative model. While seen as the centrepiece of a move toward a deeper and more inclusive democracy by proponents of these movements, opposing groups argue that participatory mechanisms pose a threat to liberal representative institutions in that they serve as instruments for populist leaders to extend their control to the neighbourhood level.

Drawing on extensive qualitative fieldwork conducted with citizens involved in participatory mechanisms in Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela from 2012 to 2018, this paper contributes to the debate by considering the impact of populist discourse and governance practices on participatory mechanisms. We examine this question on four levels of analysis: the extent to which populist leaders and their agents interfere with the day-to-day functioning of participatory mechanisms, how citizen participants perceive of and respond to populist leaders, the extent to which government discourse is internalized and reproduced by citizens engaged in participatory democracy mechanisms, and the outcomes of the participatory decision-making processes. The findings suggest that while support for populist leaders among those involved in participatory mechanisms is based on concrete, tangible benefits and rational choices rather than emotion and affective ties, the state nevertheless establishes parameters that restrict citizenship and determine acceptable forms of participation. While the intention of “radical” participatory democracy may be to strengthen citizenship as agency, the practices and discourse of the populist leaders who establish these mechanisms appears to be tipping the balance toward controlled inclusion.

Author

• Pascal Lupien