Form and Substance: the effects of transparency, access to information, and citizen participation laws on the democratisation of local governance in Chile

• In Event: Citizen participation in subnational governments in Latin America

Abstract

In recent years, Chile has implemented legislation on transparency, access to information and citizen participation in public administration. The outcomes of these laws have generally been evaluated in terms of levels of formal compliance with legal requirements: studies of the real-world effects of these mechanisms on municipal-level democratic governance have been rare or absent. This article sets out a theoretical and methodological toolkit that is then applied to analyze the effects of institutional mechanisms to promote transparency, access to information and citizen participation in three regional capital cities in Chilean Patagonia: (namely) Puerto Montt, Coyhaique and Punta Arenas. The results reveal that, even in cases where levels of formal compliance are high, substantial challenges remain. These barriers impede and sometimes even prevent the emergence of local democratic governance. Nonetheless, the evidence also suggests that local collaborative initiatives have emerged, improving the interaction between municipal administrations and civil society at local level.

Author

• Jose Hernandez Bonivento