State, Market, and Democracy in Chile The Constraint of Popular Participation [Hardcover]

Through an in-depth analysis of the Chilean labour market, social welfare, and state reforms, this book reveals the manner in which neoliberal reform in Chile has undermined the urban poor's incentives and ability to hold public officials accountable, negatively affecting the quality of Chilean democracy.Introduction The State in Society: Conceptualizing Collective Action and Popular Participation in Latin America Business, Labor, and the State: The Transformation of the State/Society Nexus Democratization, Political Representation, and the Rise of Popular Dissatisfaction Local Democracy and the Transformation of Popular Participation Social Welfare Reform and Impediments to Social Cohesion and Collective Action Neoliberalism, Democracy, and the Transformation of State-Society Relations in Argentina Neoliberalism, Democracy, and the Transformation of State-Society Relations in Mexico Conclusion

In State, Market and Democracy in Chile, Posner argues that even in the competitive political environment characterizing the post-authoritarian period, neoliberalism, as a model of economic growth, erodes subaltern groups capacity for collective action. Indeed, he makes the point that the current consolidation of a democratic political regime in Chile rests, at least in part, on the silence of these groups. His focus on the participation and incorporation of the popular sectors in the new democratic institutional arrangements provides a revealing corrective to narrowly institutionalist and procedural interpretations common in much recent work on democracy in Latin America and elsewhere. Comparative chapters on Argentina and Mexico extend Posner s analysis and make this book important to anyone interested in the quality of democracy in Latin America. - William C. Smith, Editor, Latin American Politics and Society and Professor of Political Science, University of Miami

This is a first-rate work that will be a most important contribution to the democlӣ