Renovating and Reimagining Local Democracy amidst National Retrenchment

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Renovating and reimagining democracy by creating new venues for including citizens in decision-making processes was one of the great hopes of the 1990s and early 2000s. Local governments were at the forefront of the wave of building participatory institutions. Today, the focus in many countries of the Americas and Europe is concentrated on impeding democratic backsliding. While earlier literature on citizen participation centered on understanding its democratizing potential, today we must ask about the relationship between these trends of advances in local-level participation and instability, dissatisfaction, and retrenchment of national democracies. Does adopting local participatory institutions precede or follow the erosion of national democracy? Does it contribute to or contain backsliding, or make no difference at all? Or, under what conditions do local participatory institutions strengthen democracy, making it more resilient? Which types of participatory institutions are best suited to strengthen democracy?
This panel examines the creation, persistence, variation, and effects of participatory institutions at the municipal level and their relationship to national patterns of democracy across the Americas. In the first paper, an initial chapter of a larger project on participatory democracy, Stephanie McNulty focuses on the historical and contemporary relationships between participatory institutions and representative democracy, drawing on examples from Europe and the Americas. The second paper, by Michael Touchton, Natasha Borges Sugiyama, and Brian Wampler, examines how Brazil’s participatory municipal policy councils not only survived the change in presidential administrations from advocates of participation to its illiberal critics but resulted in continued improvements in social well-being under difficult conditions. Third, Jared Abbott will present a paper based on his current book manuscript with Stephanie McNulty that asks if participatory institutions in Peru can strengthen democratic resilience through their effects on citizen perception of government responsive, through their effects on well-being, and through their effects on advancing inclusion of previously marginalized groups. In the fourth paper, Celina Su draws from her forthcoming book manuscript to question the extent to which whether the recent adoption of a popular participatory institution – participatory budgeting – is addressing racial equity and moving beyond mere inclusion to facilitating urban citizenship in New York City. The final paper, by Benjamin Goldfrank and Ninfa Hernández, compares the participatory budgeting processes in Mexico City and New York City with a particular focus on the role of civil society organizations, key actors for the renovation of democracy according to many advocates of participatory institutions.

Sub Unit

• Division 11: Comparative Politics

Individual Presentations

• Democratic Crisis and the Rise of Participatory Institutions - Stephanie McNulty, Franklin and Marshall College

• Democracy in Retreat: Challenges to Social Well-Being in Brazil - Michael Touchton, University of Miami; Natasha Borges Sugiyama, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; Brian Wampler, Boise State University

• The Power of Participatory Democracy: Exploring Local Innovations in Peru - Jared Abbott, California State University, Los Angeles; Stephanie McNulty, Franklin and Marshall College

• Participatory Budgeting, Citizenship Ecologies, and Insurgent Practice - Celina Su, CUNY-Graduate Center

• The Role of Civil Society in Participatory Budgeting in New York and Mexico City - Benjamin Goldfrank, Seton Hall University; Ninfa Elizabeth Hernández Trejo, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Chair

• Benjamin Goldfrank Seton Hall University

Discussant

• Maureen M. Donaghy Rutgers University, Camden