Is democracy possible only when it is safe for elites? Latin American
history seems to suggest so. Right-wing forces have repeatedly
deposed elected governments that challenged the rich and accepted
democracy only after the defanging of the Left and widespread market
reform. Latin America's recent "left turn" raised the
question anew: how would the Right react if democracy threatened
elite interests?
This book examines
the complex relationship of the Left, the Right, and democracy
through the lens of local politics in Venezuela and Bolivia. Drawing
on two years of fieldwork, Gabriel Hetland compares attempts at
participatory reform in cities governed by the Left and Right in each
country. He finds that such measures were more successful in
Venezuela than Bolivia regardless of which type of party held office,
though existing research suggests that deepening democracy is much
more likely under a left party. Hetland accounts for these findings
by arguing that Venezuela's ruling party achieved
hegemony--presenting its ideas as the ideas of all--while Bolivia's
ruling party did not. The Venezuelan Right was compelled to act on
the Left's political terrain; this pushed it to implement
participatory reform in an unexpectedly robust way. In Bolivia,
demobilization of popular movements led to an inhospitable
environment for local democratic deepening under any party.
Democracy on the
Ground shows that, just as right-wing hegemony can reshape the
Left, leftist hegemony can reshape the Right. Offering new
perspectives on participation, populism, and Latin American politics,
this book challenges widespread ideas about the constraints on
democracy.