This volume describes and analyzes the proliferation of new mechanisms for participation in Latin American democracies and considers the relationship between direct participation and the consolidation of representative institutions based on more traditional electoral conceptions of democracy.

Engages and advances state of the art debates in democratic theory and in the comparative politics literature on Latin American democracy

1. Voice and Consequence: Direct Participation and Democracy in Latin America; Maxwell A. Cameron, Eric Hershberg and Kenneth E. Sharpe 2. We're Either Burned or Frozen Out:' Society and Party Systems in Latin American Municipal Development Councils (Nicaragua, Venezuela, Mexico and Brazil); Gisela Zaremberg 3. Participation as Representation: Democratic Policymaking in Brazil; Thamy Pogrebinschi 4. Constrained Participation: The Impact of Consultative Councils on National-Level Policy in Mexico; Felipe J. Hevia de la Jara and Ernesto Isunza Vera 5. Learning to Be 'Better Democrats'? The Role of Informal Practices in Brazilian Participatory Budgeting Experiences; Françoise Montambeault 6. The Possibilities and Limits of Politicized Participation: Community Councils, Coproduction, and Poder Popular in Chávez's Venezuela; Michael M. McCarthy 7. Direct Democracy in Venezuela and Uruguay: New Voices, Old Practices; Alicia Lissidini 8. Participation and Representation in Oaxaca, Mexico's Customary Law Elections: Normative Debates and Lessons for Latin American Multiculturalism; Todd A. Eisenstadt and Jennifer Yelle 9. Democratic Diversity in Bolivia: Between Representation, Participation and Self-Government; José Luis Exeni R. 10. Institutionalized Voice in Latin American Democracies; Maxwell A. Cameron and Kenneth E. Sharpe