Synopses & Reviews
Political scientists have long wondered whether civic participation can have spillover effects—that is, whether civic participation in one particular domain of public life can lead to more participation in other areas. This book argues that participation can indeed be generative thus that participation can breed newer forms of participation and is supported by a large survey—among the broadest in its class—of participants in community-managed schools (CMS) in rural Honduras and Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. The result is a study that differs from traditional, pessimistic views on the role and extent of spillover effects on participation with the evidence from the survey strongly supported by cases studies and historical institutional analysis. With the caveat that the autonomy and the scope of action of participants is limited, The Promise of Participation highlights that participation does engender further participation and that many acquire and apply new skills with others even joining new organisations. As such this book will transform the way scholars think about the prospects for democratic deepening, even in the poorest regions of Latin America.
Synopsis
To what extent does participation in one particular domain of public life lead to wider participation in other areas? Through the use of an unprecedented survey supported by case studies this book explores how participatory governance in community-managed schools can alter the civic and political behaviour of participants.
About the Author
Daniel Altschuler holds his doctorate in Politics from the University of Oxford, UK, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. He is the author of articles in
Comparative Political Studies and the
Comparative Education Review. He has also published widely in non-academic publications, including
The Christian Science Monitor,
The Nation,
Americas Quarterly,
CNN,
Foreign Policy,
Newsday, the
San Francisco Chronicle, and
Dissent.
Javier Corrales is professor of Political Science at Amherst College, Amherst, USA. He is the co-author of U.S.-Venezuela Relations since the 1990s: Coping with Midlevel Security Threats (Routledge, 2013), and co-author of Dragon in the Tropics: Hugo Chávez and the Political Economy of Revolution in Venezuela (Brookings Institution Press, 2011). He is also the co-editor of The Politics of Sexuality in Latin America: A Reader on GLBT Rights (Pittsburgh University Press, 2010), and author of Presidents Without Parties: the Politics of Economic Reform in Argentina and Venezuela in the 1990s (Penn State University Press, 2002).
Table of Contents
List of Tables and Figures
Preface and Acknowledgments
PART I: THE RISE OF PARTICIPATORY GOVERNANCE
1. Introduction: The Promise of Participation
2. The Rise of Participatory Governance
3. The Rise of Community Managed Schools: Push and Pull Factors
PART II: SPILLOVER EFFECTS
4. Looking for Evidence: Survey Design, Methodological Issues, and First Clues
5. Stimulating Participation: Individual Inputs, State Inputs, and Context
6. The Case Studies: Field Work, Methodological Issues, and New Clues
7. Exogenous Factors and Spillovers: The Role of the State
8. Endogenous Factors and Spillovers: Time Commitment and Internal Democracy
PART III: OBSTACLES TO SPILLOVERS
9. Obstacles to Spillovers
10. Political Obstacles: Patronage and Polarization
11. The Impact of Patronage and Polarization on Participation and Program Survival
PART IV: CONCLUSION
12. The Limits and Limitations of Spillovers
13. Conclusion
Appendices