The Left in the City

Participatory Local Governments in Latin America

Daniel Chavez

Edited with Benjamin Goldfrank

April 2007

The Left in the City explores examples of progressive parties in local office from across the continent, from Mexico to Uruguay and from Brazil to Peru, and examines the successes and failures of the Left in government.

Foreword by Hilary Wainwright
The Left is back in Latin America, shout the headlines, but of course it never went away. Lula's and Chavez's victories in Brazil and Venezuela may have put the Left on the international map again, but it was achieved through many years of building power. The Left in the City explores examples of progressive parties in local office from across the continent, from Mexico to Uruguay and from Brazil to Peru, and examines the successes and failures of the Left in government.
"This book places politics rather than management at the centre of the local participatory governance debate. It provides a refreshing and critical look at the experiences of left parties in forging new and innovative styles of democracy in major Latinamerican cities. It deserves ample reading by students, practitioners and activists alike."
A.H.J. (Bert) Helmsing. Professor of Local and Regional Development, Institute of Social Studies and University of Utrecht, The Netherlands

ISBN:

1899365 66 4

Daniel Chavez

TNI New Politics Programme Coordinator

Daniel Chavez is a Uruguayan anthropologist specialising in Latin American politics and urban social and political movements. With an intimate knowledge of Latin American left politics and an advisor to various local governments on participatory local democracy, he is also editor of the La nueva izquierda en América Latina: sus orígenes y trayectoria futura (New Left in Latin America: its origins and future, with Patrick Barrett and Cesar García (Grupo Editorial Norma, 2005)

Before moving to Europe he had worked for almost a decade for the United Federation of Mutual-Aid Housing Cooperatives (FUCVAM). Daniel currently co-ordinates the New TNI Politics Programme, in co-operation with Hilary Wainwright. He is also author of The Left in the City: Participatory Local Governments in Latin America with Benjamin Goldfrank (LAB, 2001).