Accountability Politics
Power and Voice in Rural Mexico
Published on 13. December 2007
Book
Hardback
464 pages
978-0-19-920885-2 (ISBN)
Description
How can the seeds of accountability ever grow in authoritarian environments? Embedding accountability into the state is an inherently uneven, partial and contested process. Campaigns for public accountability often win limited concessions at best, but they can leave cracks in the system that serve as handholds for subsequent efforts to open up the state to public scrutiny.
This book explores the how civil society "thickens" by comparing two decades of rural citizens' struggles to hold the Mexican state accountable, exploring both change and continuity before, during, and after national electoral turning points. The book addresses how much power-sharing really happens in policy innovations that include participatory social and environmental councils, citizen oversight of elections, local government social investment funds, participation reforms in World Bank projects, community-managed food programs, as well as new social oversight and public information access reforms. Meanwhile, efforts to exercise voice unfold at the same time as rural citizens consider their exit options, as millions migrate to the US, where many have since come together in a new migrant civil society.
Since explanations of electoral change do not account for how people actually experience the state, this book concludes that new analytical frameworks are needed to understand "transitions to accountability." This involves unpacking the interaction between participation, transparency and accountability.
Oxford Studies in Democratization is a series for scholars and students of comparative politics and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on the comparative study of the democratization process that accompanied the decline and termination of the cold war. The geographical focus of the series is primarily Latin America, the Caribbean, Southern and Eastern Europe, and relevant experiences in Africa and Asia. The series editor is Laurence Whitehead, Official Fellow, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
This book explores the how civil society "thickens" by comparing two decades of rural citizens' struggles to hold the Mexican state accountable, exploring both change and continuity before, during, and after national electoral turning points. The book addresses how much power-sharing really happens in policy innovations that include participatory social and environmental councils, citizen oversight of elections, local government social investment funds, participation reforms in World Bank projects, community-managed food programs, as well as new social oversight and public information access reforms. Meanwhile, efforts to exercise voice unfold at the same time as rural citizens consider their exit options, as millions migrate to the US, where many have since come together in a new migrant civil society.
Since explanations of electoral change do not account for how people actually experience the state, this book concludes that new analytical frameworks are needed to understand "transitions to accountability." This involves unpacking the interaction between participation, transparency and accountability.
Oxford Studies in Democratization is a series for scholars and students of comparative politics and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on the comparative study of the democratization process that accompanied the decline and termination of the cold war. The geographical focus of the series is primarily Latin America, the Caribbean, Southern and Eastern Europe, and relevant experiences in Africa and Asia. The series editor is Laurence Whitehead, Official Fellow, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
Reviews / Votes
I recently handed it to a student interested in exploring the field of state society relations with the instruction, read this all of it!... the book makes a very important contribution to the growing classics on democratic accountability * John Gaventa, The Journal of Peasant Studies * Accountability Politics...systematically assesses the conditions under which civil society actors can successfully demand greater accountability from government officials and agencies. * Claudio A. Holzner, Latin American Politics and Society * This book is an important contribution to the literature on new political and democratic spaces in Latin America. Rich, refreshing and provocative in ideas...It is well written, clearly presented, innovative and empirically strong, going well beyond the study of electoral and elected institutions to focus on new accountability dynamics. * Alberto Arce, Journal of Latin American Studies * This is the latest book from one of the most prolific scholars of rural politics in Mexico...Within the Neo-Weberian institutionalist approach, this book is certainly among the best. It will nonetheless be a valuable tool for specialised postgraduate courses on issues of accountability, transparency and state-civil society relations in rural areas. * Leandro Vergara-Camus, Bulletin of Latin American Research * insightful...Accountability Politics introduces a new analytic framework that takes valuable steps toward recapturing aspects of politics in the developing world that have been overlooked by far too many for far too long. As such, it would be unfortunate if Fox's work were read only by those interested in Latin America or the rural poor - its potential application is far wider * William T. Barndt, Comparative Political Studies * I fully recommend this book to Mexican scholars and those involved in the design of new policy packages and development interventions in politically complex, heterogeneous, and transitional national spaces. * Tim Trench, Development in Practice *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
tables and figures
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 29 mm
Weight
840 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-920885-2 (9780199208852)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
12/2007
OUP eBook
€133.99
Available for download
Person
Jonathan Fox was born in New York City and studied politics at Princeton University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is Professor in the interdisciplinary Latin American and Latino Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He has published widely on issues of development policy, democratization, institutional reform and migrant civil society. He began carrying out field research in Mexico in 1982, and has also worked in Brazil, Central America, and the Philippines. He works with a diverse array of public interest groups, development agencies, social organizations, and private foundations.
Content
1. Accountability Challenges: Disentangling State and Regime ; 2. Civil Society and Accountability Politics ; 3. How Does Civil Society Thicken? The Political Construction of Social Capital ; 4. Offsetting the "Iron Law of Oligarchy:" The Challenge of Internal Democracy ; 5. The Invisible Problem of the Secret Ballot in the Countryside: What Counts as Free and Fair? ; 6. Contrasting Theory and Practice: The World Bank and Social Capital in Rural Mexico ; 7. Decentralizing Decentralization: Mexico's Invisible Fourth Level of the State ; 8. Comparing Regional Rural Development Councils: Do "Invited Spaces" Empower? ; 9. Accessing Accountability: Individual vs Collective Voices ; 10. Mexico's Migrant Civil Society: Exit Followed by Voice ; 11. Mapping Accountability Pathways ; Bibliography