Overview

"How can the seeds of accountability ever grow in authoritarian environments? Embedding accountability into the state is an inherently uneven, partial and contested process. Campaigns for public accountability often win limited concessions at best, but they can leave cracks in the system that serve as handholds for subsequent efforts to open up the state to public scrutiny. This book explores the how civil society ""thickens"" by comparing two decades of rural citizens' struggles to hold the Mexican state accountable, exploring both change and continuity before, during, and after national electoral turning points. The book addresses how much power-sharing really happens in policy innovations that include participatory social and environmental councils, citizen oversight of elections, local government social investment funds, participation reforms in World Bank projects, community-managed food programs, as well as new social oversight and public information access reforms. Meanwhile, efforts to exercise voice unfold at the same time as rural citizens consider their exit options, as millions migrate to the US, where many have since come together in a new migrant civil society. Since explanations of electoral change do not account for how people actually experience the state, this book concludes that new analytical frameworks are needed to understand ""transitions to accountability."" This involves unpacking the interaction between participation, transparency and accountability. Oxford Studies in Democratization is a series for scholars and students of comparative politics and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on the comparative study of the democratization process that accompanied the decline and termination of the cold war. The geographical focus of the series is primarily Latin America, the Caribbean, Southern and Eastern Europe, and relevant experiences in Africa and Asia. The series editor is Laurence Whitehead, Official Fellow, Nuffield College, University of Oxford."

Full Product Details

Author:   Jonathan A. Fox (Professor in the Latin American and Latino Studies Department, University of California, Santa Cruz)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 16.20cm , Height: 3.10cm , Length: 24.10cm
Weight:   0.845kg
ISBN:  

9780199208852

ISBN 10:   0199208859
Pages:   464
Publication Date:   13 December 2007
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

"1: Accountability Challenges: Disentangling State and Regime 2: Civil Society and Accountability Politics 3: How Does Civil Society Thicken? The Political Construction of Social Capital 4: Offsetting the ""Iron Law of Oligarchy:"" The Challenge of Internal Democracy 5: The Invisible Problem of the Secret Ballot in the Countryside: What Counts as Free and Fair? 6: Contrasting Theory and Practice: The World Bank and Social Capital in Rural Mexico 7: Decentralizing Decentralization: Mexico's Invisible Fourth Level of the State 8: Comparing Regional Rural Development Councils: Do ""Invited Spaces"" Empower? 9: Accessing Accountability: Individual vs Collective Voices 10: Mexico's Migrant Civil Society: Exit Followed by Voice 11: Mapping Accountability Pathways Bibliography"

Reviews

I fully recommend this book to Mexican scholars and those involved in the design of new policy packages and development interventions in politically complex, heterogeneous, and transitional national spaces. * Tim Trench, Development in Practice * insightful...Accountability Politics introduces a new analytic framework that takes valuable steps toward recapturing aspects of politics in the developing world that have been overlooked by far too many for far too long. As such, it would be unfortunate if Fox's work were read only by those interested in Latin America or the rural poor - its potential application is far wider * William T. Barndt, Comparative Political Studies * This is the latest book from one of the most prolific scholars of rural politics in Mexico...Within the Neo-Weberian institutionalist approach, this book is certainly among the best. It will nonetheless be a valuable tool for specialised postgraduate courses on issues of accountability, transparency and state-civil society relations in rural areas. * Leandro Vergara-Camus, Bulletin of Latin American Research * This book is an important contribution to the literature on new political and democratic spaces in Latin America. Rich, refreshing and provocative in ideas...It is well written, clearly presented, innovative and empirically strong, going well beyond the study of electoral and elected institutions to focus on new accountability dynamics. * Alberto Arce, Journal of Latin American Studies * Accountability Politics...systematically assesses the conditions under which civil society actors can successfully demand greater accountability from government officials and agencies. * Claudio A. Holzner, Latin American Politics and Society * I recently handed it to a student interested in exploring the field of state society relations with the instruction, read this all of it!... the book makes a very important contribution to the growing classics on democratic accountability * John Gaventa, The Journal of Peasant Studies *

I recently handed it to a student interested in exploring the field of state society relations with the instruction, read this all of it!... the book makes a very important contribution to the growing classics on democratic accountability John Gaventa, The Journal of Peasant Studies Accountability Politics...systematically assesses the conditions under which civil society actors can successfully demand greater accountability from government officials and agencies. Claudio A. Holzner, Latin American Politics and Society This book is an important contribution to the literature on new political and democratic spaces in Latin America. Rich, refreshing and provocative in ideas...It is well written, clearly presented, innovative and empirically strong, going well beyond the study of electoral and elected institutions to focus on new accountability dynamics. Alberto Arce, Journal of Latin American Studies This is the latest book from one of the most prolific scholars of rural politics in Mexico...Within the Neo-Weberian institutionalist approach, this book is certainly among the best. It will nonetheless be a valuable tool for specialised postgraduate courses on issues of accountability, transparency and state-civil society relations in rural areas. Leandro Vergara-Camus, Bulletin of Latin American Research insightful...Accountability Politics introduces a new analytic framework that takes valuable steps toward recapturing aspects of politics in the developing world that have been overlooked by far too many for far too long. As such, it would be unfortunate if Fox's work were read only by those interested in Latin America or the rural poor - its potential application is far wider William T. Barndt, Comparative Political Studies I fully recommend this book to Mexican scholars and those involved in the design of new policy packages and development interventions in politically complex, heterogeneous, and transitional national spaces. Tim Trench, Development in Practice

Author Information

Jonathan Fox was born in New York City and studied politics at Princeton University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is Professor in the interdisciplinary Latin American and Latino Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He has published widely on issues of development policy, democratization, institutional reform and migrant civil society. He began carrying out field research in Mexico in 1982, and has also worked in Brazil, Central America, and the Philippines. He works with a diverse array of public interest groups, development agencies, social organizations, and private foundations.

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