The Left in the City

The left is back in Latin America, shout the headlines, but of course it never really went away. Lula’s victory in Brazil may have put the left on the international map again, but it was achieved through years of building up the Workers’ Party and three unsuccessful attempts at taking power. But the failure of the left to win nationally and the retreat from state power meant the re-thinking of means and ends, and the emergence of new strategies. One of them was to target local government as the site of possible change, and to address how democracy has not delivered for the majority of Latin Americans. While it is an improvement on military regimes, it has come hand in hand with economic liberalisation and increased insecurity and poverty. In response, the left began to explore ways of
making democracy work better for people. `The Left in the City’ explores examples from across the continent, from Mexico to Uruguay, to show the successes and failures of the left in local governments. The case studies presented address a range of important questions for the left: what does participation mean for left administrations, in which ways is it implemented, what successes or failures have been experienced?