Author Meets Critics: Building Participatory Institutions in Latin America

Session Submission Type: Author meet critics

Session Description

This author-meets-critics panel brings together four leading scholars to discuss Lindsay Mayka’s book, Building Participatory Institutions in Latin America: Reform Coalitions and Institutional Change (Cambridge University Press, 2019).

Building Participatory Institutions in Latin America examines why some participatory institutions mandated in national laws become institutionalized and gain formal authority, while others only remain on the books. Mayka argues that nationally mandated participatory institutions take root when they originate in sweeping policy sector reforms, which bundle requirements for participation with an overhaul of the policy sector. In contrast, participatory institutions that are created with the primary aim of deepening democracy are surprisingly easy for entrenched interests to dismantle. Building Participatory Institutions in Latin America develops this argument through case studies of participatory institutions in three policy areas—health, social assistance, and planning—in Brazil and Colombia.

This author-meets critics panel will bring together scholars with expertise in the areas of participatory democracy, social movements, institutional weakness and change, social policy, and qualitative methodologies to assess the contributions of Building Participatory Institutions in Latin America. The participants will assess the theoretical and empirical implications of the book, review synergies with their own work, and propose areas of future research that build on the 2020 APSA themes of democratic instability and the resilience of democratic institutions.

The following scholars will participate:

Author: Lindsay Mayka, Assistant Professor of Government, Colby College

Chair: Eduardo Moncada, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Barnard College

Presenters:
Archon Fung, Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government, Harvard Kennedy School
Alisha Holland, Associate Professor of Government, Harvard University
Wendy Hunter, Professor of Government, University of Texas, Austin
Maiah Jaskoski, Associate Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Northern Arizona University

The presenters represent a group of leading scholars on the issues raised by Building Participatory Institutions in Latin America, including participatory democracy (Fung and Jaskoski), civil society and social movements (Hunter and Jaskoski), institutional weakness and institutional change (Holland and Hunter), and the politics of redistributive policymaking (Holland and Hunter). Together with the chair (Moncada), an expert on the study of citizen mobilization and participatory governance in security, the participants promise to contribute a rich discussion related to the 2020 APSA themes of democratic (in)stability and the political inclusion of marginalized groups in unequal democracies.

Sub Unit

• Division 12: Comparative Politics of Developing Countries

Chair

• Eduardo Moncada Barnard College, Columbia University

Presenters

• Archon Fung Harvard University

• Alisha Caroline Holland Harvard University

• Wendy Hunter University of Texas, Austin

• Maiah Jaskoski Northern Arizona University

• Lindsay Rose Mayka Colby College