The neoliberal bureaucratization of citizen participation in Spain

Abstract

In view of the global participative turn that is registered in the so-called western democracies, this article aims to know the particular form that this turn takes in Spain. To this end, a genetic analysis of the institutionalisation of citizen participation in the country, between 1978 and 2017, is carried out. From this analysis is concluded the neoliberal trend of the participatory turn that is implemented in Spain. The text describes the three main movements that make up the diagnosis of the neoliberal participatory turn: 1) the naturalization of a topos with a mechanistic nature of the crisis of democracy; 2) the neoliberal bureaucratization of participation, and 3) the privatization of participation. The general lines of the three movements are explained, and the particular analysis of the second of them, the neoliberal bureaucratization of citizen participation, is described.