Abstract

CANTO SAENZ, Rodolfo. Governance and Democracy: Back to the Dirty River of Politics. Gest. polít. pública [online]. 2012, vol.21, n.2, pp.333-374. ISSN 1405-1079.

Taking as its starting point the concepts of governance of Rhodes and Kooiman, the article develops a critique of the theory of shared government between elected governments and civil society or market actors for its potentially adverse implications for democracy, such as the uncertainty regarding accountability of nongovernmental actors, the lack of presence of major groups of the population in the networks of actors and the absence of redistributive policies in the discourse of governance. On this basis, it argues the need to look back to the traditional political arena as an area of public statement, aggregation of social demands and the main option for political participation by large groups of the population in Latin America. The paper argues that strengthening democracy goes through the development of politics, rather than by their escape into the networks of governance.

Keywords : government; governance; democracy; politics; political development.

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