Democratic Innovations in Latin America: Beyond the Participatory Budgeting

Abstract

In recent years Latin America has claimed to be a laboratory for participatory and deliberative democracy. Although democratic innovations are witnessing a worldwide trend now, the new participatory and deliberative designs have found a quite fertile soil in Latin America to root. The participatory budgeting (PB), a Brazilian invention and a kind of Latin America’s export, has been replicated in many countries across continents. A considerable volume of international research on the participatory budgeting has been done so far, relying in one way or another on the initial Latin American experience. However, Latin America’s vigorous participatory landscape should not be restricted to the knowledge of the participatory budgeting. Hundreds of other institutional designs for citizen participation and deliberation have been implemented across the region over the years, which could contribute to the research on democratic innovations as much as the participatory budgeting does. Up to now, very few other Latin American innovations have caught the attention of international scholars. Although many refer to Latin America’s rich participatory environment, few are the innovations – apart from the PB – that have been thoroughly discussed by the international scientific community. This panel seeks to fill in this void and provide a venue for the discussion of some the various democratic innovations that have flourished in Latin America in recent years. Case studies and comparative analyses are both welcome, as well as more exploratory pieces on the diversity of Latin America’s democratic experimentalism.

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