in Levitsky, Steven, and Maria Victoria Murillo. 2005. Argentine democracy: the politics of institutional weakness. University Park, Pa: Pennsylvania State University Press.
- Introduction
- in the past 20 years a more sophisticated and demanding citizenry has emerged, demanding representation and accountability from Argentine politicians (229-230)
- and important actor was the rise of the human rights movement in response to the dictatorship (230)
- Menem's disregard of demands for greater accountability also spured the citizenry
- Redefinition of Representation
- Argentine citizenry switched from "authorization" view of representation, which is connected to populism, to demanding accountability of representatives as in liberal democracy (Pitkin 1972) (231)
- populist leaders were given authorization to act in the interests of the people
- now citizens demand politicians be directly accountable
- this pivoted thanks in part to the emergence of the human rights movement in the 1980s and their demands against the military (231-232)
- there is no longer a direct relationship between constituents and representatives...this relationship is mediated by institutions (233)
- this is a change driven by leveling off of high expectations for politicians and a new trust in institutions
- The partial dissolution of captive electorates has led to more fluid and unpredictable electoral behavior (235)
- footnote: the PJ has been able to keep hold of its lower class constituents through clientelism
- The Politics of Social Accountability
- three main actors
- NGOs and advocacy organizations (236-237)
- Social movements (237)
- watchdog journalism (237-238)
- threefold contribution
- signalling to population, "what's happening, why its bad" (238-239)
- social initiatives can activate a network of horizontal agencies of accountability, gets a movement going (239-240)
- establishment of permanent watchdog groups/agencies (240)
- 2001 buildup and Accountability politics
- Alianza promised to renew ties, not be corrupt (241)
- then the Senate scandal (241-242)
- the scandal cast doubts n the electoral arena as a place where accountability could be found (243)
- the bribes went to the very heart of the state's electoral institutions
- Alianza was slow to respond, and had a tepid response
- this led to electoral protest/null ballots in 2001 (244-245)...
- ...and mobilizations against leaders, que se vayan todos, (245-246)
- and local, representative, unofficial neighborhood "governments" called asambleas sprung up (246-248)
- these eventually ran out of steam in 2002 and most were gone by 2003 (248)
- Conclusion
- shared concern of the quality of democratic institutions connects the politics of social accountability, the cacerolazos (pot banging protests), and the asambleas (249)
- importantly, though, these mobilizations were triggered by the spread of frustration that the government wasn't listening/wasn't accountable
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