This inquiry examines the ruptures and continuities in local democratic practices in opposition and in government. I conducted research in seven rural municipalities in Chalatenango, El Salvador where leaders of oppositional community-based organizations entered municipal politics 15 years ago. This new generation of municipal officials established forums for citizen participation that incorporate patterns of citizenship learning and participation developed in oppositional civil society. The democratic outcomes of these municipal spaces for citizen engagement are mixed, however: they improved the quality of citizen participation in municipal governance, but circumscribed autonomous forms of citizen participation. The influence of partisan political and institutional state interests are the principal factors that account for this outcome. At the same time, civil society and local government in Chalatenango exist in a relationship of mutual influence. This suggests that efforts to foster democratic citizen participation should complement support to institutional innovation with efforts to strengthen civil society.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/24629 |
| Date | 28 July 2010 |
| Creators | Rosales, Nelson |
| Contributors | Schugurensky, Daniel |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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