Diego Sánchez-Ancochea and Iwan Morgan (eds.), The Political Economy of the Public Budget in the Americas (London: Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London, 2008), pp. xiii+263, £20.00, pb.
material, in the form of interviews conducted in 1993, 2001 and 2006 in three distinct poblaciones (urban shanty towns) in Greater Santiago, with a range of municipal representatives and community leaders and activists. More than anything, the interviews reveal ‘a pervasive sense of alienation and frustration _ in general _ local leaders expressed serious scepticism regarding the concern of party leaders for the needs and interests of the pobladores ’ (p. 87). Posner argues that much can be attributed to the institutional constraints imposed by the military as part of the transition to democracy – for example, the binominal electoral system – which have ensured the perpetuation of the structural conditions that destroyed the linkages between left-wing political parties and their constituents. The nature of the system has assigned greater political and legislative power to the favoured parties of the military regime than would otherwise have been the case. Consensus on economic policy between the Coalition parties and the right-wing opposition has resulted in a commitment to maintaining political stability at the expense of the mobilisation of social demands. As Posner argues, the popular sectors are mobilised for winning specific electoral contests, but this is done through modern campaign techniques such as mass media advertising that leave no space for the organisation and action of traditional party militants (p. 71). Moreover, the binominal system compels political parties to form pacts, which has led to ideological homogenisation among the parties of the Coalition and exclusion of the far Left (p. 82). This has limited the Coalition governments’ ability to implement more progressive and democratic reforms and consequently compromised the parties’ ability and willingness to respond to popular sector demands. Policy debates remain technocratic, with social welfare reforms being negotiated at the highest levels of the party leaderships, removing the scope for inclusion of any demands from the Coalition’s own social constituencies. Through his comparative analysis of Mexico and Argentina, Posner is able to conclude that, despite significant differences in all three cases, overall the imposition of neoliberal reforms has created the conditions that have constrained popular sector participation and unity, and prospects for change are limited. He calls for further research to determine the extent to which this pattern prevails across the region and whether or not it represents a new state–society matrix. Despite the heavy focus on Chile, the highly readable style of this book should appeal to readers with a broad interest in the politics of participation and processes of democratisation. The comparative element in the final chapters also ensures that the book offers something more than a one-country case study and provides a useful framework for asking what political opportunities there are for the urban poor elsewhere in Latin America and beyond.