Democracy on the Ground - by Gabriel Hetland (Paperback)

About the Book

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.

Book Synopsis

Honorable Mention, 2024 Marysa Navarro Best Book Prize, New England Council for Latin American Studies

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.

Review Quotes

This is a great ethnography of two cities in Venezuela and Bolivia and thus adds material to a grounded analysis of the left turn in Latin America.-- "American Journal of Sociology"

An important contribution to studies of democracy, participation, and the Left.-- "Hispanic American Historical Review"

This book is valuable to scholars and teachers of Latin American politics, political sociology, and comparative politics... Democracy on the Ground demonstrates that it is not only possible to widen the sphere of democratic participation without inciting elite repression, but that it has empirically already happened.-- "Peace and Change"

An alluring read.-- "International Affairs"

His unexpected findings raise important questions for leftists anywhere hoping to one day exercise state power.-- "Jacobin"

Democracy on the Ground explores an interesting puzzle: why did political elites embrace participatory democracy in some Latin American cities and not others? This puzzle and Hetland's findings are important to many debates about democracy, political elites, political parties, and participatory governance. His extensive fieldwork will be of great value to scholars and policy makers who want to better understand the political dynamics in this region--Stephanie McNulty, author of Democracy From Above? The Unfulfilled Promise of Nationally Mandated Participatory Reforms

A much-needed grassroots study of two 'populist' experiments in Venezuela and Bolivia. Gabriel Hetland is an astute observer of Latin American politics and this insightful, thoughtful book goes beyond the polemics and cliches to consider what democracy means to people whose opinions are rarely consulted. Indispensable.--Greg Grandin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America

Hetland masterfully portrays the complexity of implementing democracy on the grassroots level in Latin America.--Susan Eva Eckstein, author of Cuban Privilege: The Making of Immigrant Inequality in America

In this important book, Gabriel Hetland brings his illuminating fieldwork in Venezuela and Bolivia to make a compelling and original argument about how the nature of national political systems can shape the possibility for participatory action on the ground.--Sujatha Fernandes, author of Who Can Stop the Drums? Urban Social Movements in Chávez's Venezuela

About the Author

Gabriel Hetland is associate professor of Latin American, Caribbean, and Latina/o studies at the University at Albany, State University of New York.