Participation and Consent: The Local Politics of Urban Upgrading

• In Event: 40420 - Section on Political Sociology Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 20: The Politics of the Right Wing 2

Abstract

How does a right-wing government build embeddedness with grassroots organizations that are not politically aligned with the party? In 2016, right-wing political party (PRO) launched in Buenos Aires, Argentina, an unprecedented urban upgrading policy aimed at improving urban slums. The government sought to implement a policy for the urban upgrading of informal settlements. However, it lacked strong ties with civil society organizations within these neighborhoods, which were crucial for implementing the public policy. Securing residents’ consent was essential, as the policy required relocating them from their homes to newly constructed housing units. In this paper, I argue that a political party and its bureaucracy can build consent with civil society through different mechanisms, by 1) implementing participatory institutions, 2) aiming to coopt grassroots organizations or local brokers, and 3) engaging in clientelist practices. These different strategies allowed a non-embedded political party to build ties with key actors in civil society and advance the implementation of the public policy with citizens’ approval. Although embeddedness implied greater state involvement in civil society, it did not lead to stronger political affiliation.

Author

• Alejandra Cueto Piazza, Brown University