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Political Rights and Intermediation: Municipal Decentralization and Democratic Innovation in Uruguay

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Intermediation and Representation in Latin America

Part of the book series: Studies of the Americas ((STAM))

Abstract

This chapter analyses why some municipalities in Uruguay created participatory institutions while others did not after the 2010 Decentralization Reform. The analysis is based on the experience of two similar Uruguayan municipalities, Chuy and Libertad. In order to explain these differences, it is argued that political conflict, in the form of antagonism outlined in the third dimension of the “cube of political intermediation” (CPI) developed in this book, facilitated the emergence of new forms of political intermediation. Finally, the chapter shows that although political parties are strongly institutionalized in Uruguay, new participatory institutions should not be understood as an alternative to traditional voting, but rather as complementary spaces of political intermediation.

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Freigedo Peláez, M. (2017). Political Rights and Intermediation: Municipal Decentralization and Democratic Innovation in Uruguay. In: Zaremberg, G., Guarneros-Meza, V., Gurza Lavalle, A. (eds) Intermediation and Representation in Latin America. Studies of the Americas. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51538-0_4

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