Participatory Innovation and Democratic Accountability in South America

• In Event: 25 years of Participatory Governance in Latin America: Advances, shortcomings, and unexpected outcomes

Abstract

The paper argues that recent participatory innovations in South America resulted in a more complex scenario for the practice of accountability. Such developments have rendered the traditional concept of accountability as limited government as inadequate for understanding the existing democratic scenario of many Latin American societies. The liberal understanding of accountability as control needs to be replaced by a more comprehensive notion of democratic accountability that can accommodate the variety of mechanisms that nowadays contribute to the practice of democratic representation in contemporary Latin America.

Author

• Enrique Peruzzotti, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella