Power groups, interests and interest groups in Latin America: a new era or more of the same?

In: Journal of public affairs, Band 14, Heft 3-4, S. 392-422

Abstract

This final article draws on the 13 contributions to this special issue, regarding the broad range of perspectives and in‐depth analyses of interest group systems across Latin America, to assess the contemporary operation and academic study of the region's interest group activity. In doing so, the analysis draws on the questions, premises and framework set out in the first article of this volume. Although the development of group systems varies from country to country, extensive developments have occurred since the early 1980s in the institutionalization of interest group activity. Yet, major challenges need to be overcome to ensure a deep‐rooted acceptance of interest group pluralism. Moreover, as with all group systems, the challenges facing the region are very much shaped by long‐standing socioeconomic and political cultural characteristics. These include widespread economic inequality and the central socio‐political role of family that often translates into clientelism, elitism, and corruption in the public policy arena. In turn, these and other challenges facing the group system affect the consolidation of democracy. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.