Manifesting democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean

Abstract

Democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean suffers from a complex crisis of citizen under-representation. This remains the case in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Bolivia and Uruguay. Despite its patriarchal creole foundation, the dawn of the twenty-first century became a turning point for democracy in these seven countries, as workers, women, youth, first nations, LGBTQ communities and “disabled” collectives stood up for themselves, asking for the guarantee of their human rights. This volume presents nine articles that articulate how social movements are organizing themselves, taking to the streets and social media platforms to counterbalance inequity and find representation. The nine contributions revise the contexts in which protests, uprisings, pickets and parades have taken place in the last decade. The contributions also analyze how effective these manifestations have been in terms of their goals and the (in)direct outcomes, as well as their short- and long-term impact on societies at both local and global levels.