Democratic Innovation Beyond the State: The Role of Civil Society in the Promotion of Citizen Participation in Latin America

The scholarship on democratic innovations has routinely circumscribed the scope of democratic innovations to state-sanctioned institutions. The role of governments in the expansion of new forms of citizen participation has been somewhat overstudied, what contributed to the misleading idea that new forms of citizen participation in Latin America are inherently state-driven and thus top-down. Although there may be some truth to that statement, the role of civil society in democratic innovations should not be underestimated. This paper claims that the failure to acknowledge the presence and impact of democratic innovations led by CSOs understates the role that civil society has played in Latin America during democratization processes and after democratic consolidation. It relies on LATINNO data for 18 countries in Latin America from 1990 to 2020 to shed light on the role of civil society organizations in the promotion of democratic innovations in Latin America. The paper traces the increasing role of citizens-led initiatives since after the end of the left turn, shows how this is linked to the advancement of digital innovations, and argues that such trends indicate a new direction that democratic innovation may take in the future.