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Between Liberal and Participatory Democracy: Tensions and Dilemmas of Leftist Politics in Brazil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2006

GÜNTHER SCHÖNLEITNER
GÜNTHER SCHÖNLEITNER
Affiliation:
London School of Economics and Political Science.
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Abstract

Brazil's left, especially the Workers' Party (PT), largely views civil society participation as a means of correcting the shortcomings of liberal democracy, and to break clientelistic politics. This article questions the underlying assumptions that civil society is inherently a pro-democratic force and that participatory arrangements enjoy sufficient autonomy from local power dynamics to democratise state action. Effective participation requires a positive interplay between government commitment, civic virtues, and supportive institutional design. Participatory democracy presupposes a well-functioning representative democracy rather than curing its ills. The article compares four municipal health councils in towns with varying combinations of government commitment and civicness, which highlights a complex interaction of political, civic, and institutional factors that shaped deliberative participation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , February 2006 , pp. 35 - 63
Copyright
2006 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This article is based on the author's PhD thesis and an earlier publication that derived from it. See G. Schönleitner, ‘Deliberative Health Councils and Local Democracy in Brazil: Politics, Civicness, and Institutions,’ unpubl. PhD diss., London School of Economics, 2004; and G. Schönleitner, ‘Can Public Deliberation Democratise State Action?: Municipal Health Councils and Local Democracy in Brazil,’ in J. Harriss, K. Stokke and O. Törnquist (eds.), Politicising Democracy: The New Local Politics of Democratisation (Basingstoke, 2004).