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Introduction: Political Parties and Social Movements in Latin America (2011–2016)

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Civil Society and Political Representation in Latin America (2010-2015)

Abstract

This work aims to explain the autonomization process of civil society vis-a-vis the political parties in Latin America, after the occurrence of the ‘Latin American social spring’ (2011–2016). Indeed, if several case studies have emerged explaining a detachment between political parties and civil society in Latin America, no work has systematized the comparison to the whole region. Thus, I join theories from two different but complementary fields in political science literature: political representation and social movements’ theories. Then I proceed to a test of four hypotheses, aiming to explain the detachment phenomenon, using QCA methodology. The main findings are that the permanence, or rise, of a strong cleavage system and the participation of the state to the socio-economic process constitute determinant conditions explaining the political (de)alignment in the region.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See the chapter by Mauro in this book.

  2. 2.

    In France, for example, trust in political parties tends to be very low. In 2015, levels of trust in political parties barely reached 5%, without, however, democratic values and democracy itself being endangered.

  3. 3.

    See Albala and Tricot’s chapter in this book.

  4. 4.

    See Natal’s chapter in this book.

  5. 5.

    The Brazilian party system introduced during the transition to democracy, 1985–1988, was more an inauguration than the recovery of party names and identities.

  6. 6.

    See the chapter by Vieira, Fernández and Coimbra in this book.

  7. 7.

    See the chapter by Mauro in this book.

  8. 8.

    In this turbulent context, Chile is an exception. Its period of internal instability post-independence lasted for only a decade, whereas in Argentina, for example, it lasted for more than 70 years.

  9. 9.

    In this respect, Freemasonry occupies a prominent place.

  10. 10.

    We can also mention the processes of agrarian reform which stemmed from the joint action of rural movements, political parties and citizens’ organizations.

  11. 11.

    It is worth noting, in fact, that it was these organized actions against the dictatorships in Latin America and Eastern Europe which brought the concept of civil society back to the forefront of the academic agenda.

  12. 12.

    The model implemented during the dictatorship.

  13. 13.

    Brazil is, to a certain extent, an exception. See the chapter about Brazil in this book.

  14. 14.

    The relationships described by Hannagan (1998) and summarized by Bidegain (2015) are (i) ‘articulation’, referring to social organizations which are structured around political parties and are directly controlled by them; (ii) ‘impregnation’, where social organizations are committed to the political party of which they form part but are not as closely dependent as in the case of articulation; (iii) ‘alliance’, where social organizations and political parties are formally independent, but form ad hoc alliances about specific issues; and (iv) ‘independence’, where social movements pressure parties to support their demands, with a veiled threat that not doing so could have an electoral cost.

  15. 15.

    However, in this study, we will not consider the state of Brazilian society in 2015–2016 but rather at the start of the social movements of 2013. Later, we will return to the topic of Brazil and the consequences of the growing societal polarization on the continuation in power/impeachment of the President, Dilma Rousseff.

  16. 16.

    In QCA notation, the sign ‘*’ supposes an additional relation ‘and’. The relation X1*X2 should be read as ‘X1 and X2’.

  17. 17.

    See Chap. 2 about Chile in this book.

  18. 18.

    See the Alejandro Natal’s chapter about Mexico in this book.

  19. 19.

    In QCA notation, the plus sign ‘+’ supposes the relation ‘or’. The relation ‘X1+X2’ should be read as ‘X1 or X2’.

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  1. Federal University of ABC (UFABC), Santo André, Brazil

    Adrián Albala

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    Adrián Albala

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Albala, A. (2018). Introduction: Political Parties and Social Movements in Latin America (2011–2016). In: Albala, A. (eds) Civil Society and Political Representation in Latin America (2010-2015). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67801-6_1

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