Table Of ContentThe Limits to Citizen Power
Anthropology, Culture and Society
Series Editors:
Professor Vered Amit, Concordia University
Doctor Jamie Cross, University of Edinburgh
and
Professor Christina Garsten, Stockholm University
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The Limits to
Citizen Power
Participatory Democracy and
the Entanglements of the State
Victor Albert
First published 2016 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright © Victor Albert 2016
The right of Victor Albert to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7453 3612 1 Hardback
ISBN 978 0 7453 3617 6 Paperback
ISBN 978 1 7837 1797 2 PDF eBook
ISBN 978 1 7837 1799 6 Kindle eBook
ISBN 978 1 7837 1798 9 EPUB eBook
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed
and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are
expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin.
Typeset by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England
Simultaneously printed in the European Union and United States of America
Contents
List of Figures and Tables vi
List of Abbreviations vii
Series Preface viii
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
1 Democratisation, Reform and Participation in Brazil 22
2 Rituals and Ritualisation 41
3 Participatory Budgeting: Ritualisations of Petitioning and Power 66
4 Embedded Participatory Institutions: The Urban Development
Council and the Housing Council 85
5 Shared Practices, Contrasting Ideologies 114
6 Backstage 143
Conclusion: Reimagining Participatory Democracy 167
Notes 188
References 192
Index 205
List of Figures and Tables
Figures
3.1 Participants making demands during the Parque Andreense
assembly 72
3.2 Demands displayed on a projector screen 74
3.3 Attendees vote for investment priorities and regional
representatives using electronic ballot machines 76
4.1 Spatial organisation in the UDC 90
4.2 Spatial organisation in the HC 104
Tables
3.1 Biennial cycle of the participatory budget 68
4.1 General agenda items for the UDC 95
4.2 General agenda items for the HC 106
List of Abbreviations
AEIS Áreas de Especial Interesse Social (Areas of Special Social
Interest)
ABC the municipalities of Santo André, São Bernardo do Campo
and São Caetano, a region of São Paulo
CESA Centro Educacional de Santo André
FNRU Fórum Nacional de Reforma Urbana (National Forum for
Urban Reform)
HC Conselho Municipal de Habitação (Housing Council)
MBC Conselho Municipal de Orçamento (Municipal Budget
Council)
MDF Movimento de Defesa do Favelado (Movement for the
Defence of Shanty-Town Inhabitants)
MDDF Movimento de Defesa dos Direitos de Moradores em
Favela (Movement for the Defence of Favela Inhabitants’
Rights)
MNRU Movimento Nacional de Reforma Urbana (Movement for
Urban Reform)
PB participatory budget
PDS Partido Democrático Social (Democratic Social Party)
PFL Partido da Frente Liberal (Liberal Front Party)
SEMASA Serviço Municipal de Saneamento Ambiental de Santo
André (Municipal Urban Sanitation Service of Santo
André)
SERVCOOP Cooperativa Habitacional dos Servidores Públicos de Santo
André (Santo André Municipal Public Servants’ Housing
Cooperative)
UDC Conselho Municipal de Política Urbana (Urban
Development Council)
WMC Conselho Municipal de Assistência Social (Welfare
Management Council)
ZEIS Zonas Especiais de Interesse Social (Special Social Interest
Zones)
Series Preface
Anthropology is a discipline based upon in-depth ethnographic works
that deal with wider theoretical issues in the context of particular, local
conditions – to paraphrase an important volume from the series: large issues
explored in small places. This series has a particular mission: to publish
work that moves away from an old-style descriptive ethnography that is
strongly area-studies oriented, and offer genuine theoretical arguments
that are of interest to a much wider readership, but which are nevertheless
located and grounded in solid ethnographic research. If anthropology is to
argue itself a place in the contemporary intellectual world, then it must
surely be through such research.
We start from the question: ‘What can this ethnographic material tell us
about the bigger theoretical issues that concern the social sciences?’ rather
than ‘What can these theoretical ideas tell us about the ethnographic
context?’ Put this way round, such work becomes about large issues, set in
a (relatively) small place, rather than detailed description of a small place
for its own sake. As Clifford Geertz once said, ‘Anthropologists don’t study
villages; they study in villages.’
By place, we mean not only geographical locale, but also other types of
‘place’ – within political, economic, religious or other social systems. We
therefore publish work based on ethnography within political and religious
movements, occupational or class groups, among youth, development
agencies, and nationalist movements; but also work that is more
thematically based – on kinship, landscape, the state, violence, corruption,
the self. The series publishes four kinds of volume: ethnographic
monographs; comparative texts; edited collections; and shorter, polemical
essays.
We publish work from all traditions of anthropology, and all parts of
the world, which combines theoretical debate with empirical evidence to
demonstrate anthropology’s unique position in contemporary scholarship
and the contemporary world.
Professor Vered Amit
Dr Jamie Cross
Professor Christina Garsten
Acknowledgements
I am very grateful to a large number of people that made this book
possible. In Australia, I must first of all recognise the efforts of my dear
friend, Rowan Ireland. Rowan’s selfless encouragement, support, and
critical feedback belong to a kind of scholarly collegiality that seems to be
disappearing from the modern academy. I hope that some of it has rubbed
off on me. At La Trobe University, I would like to thank Anthony Moran for
his constructive criticism, practical advice, generous spirit and friendship.
Also at La Trobe were that coterie of Latin Americanists, including Barry
Carr, Ralph Newmark, and the late Steve Niblo, who helped to shape this
work through years of feedback, debate and discussions. Many thanks go
to them and also to Chris Eipper and Karl Smith for their own important
contributions to this project. Zuleika Arashiro has been a great friend and
an important source of support and advice over the years as we each have
criss-crossed each other’s countries.
If I am indebted to a large number of people in Australia, the number is
even higher in Brazil. The administration in Santo André gave me access
I would never have been afforded in Australia. They were willing and
accessible, forthright and accommodating. Without their co-operation I
never would have been able to write this monograph. I was welcomed by
the administration in Santo André based on the understanding, I believe,
that it is important to have critical perspectives on local politics. My hope
is that this book is received in the spirit in which I was received. I must
particularly single out Robson at SEMASA for his friendship and help
over the years. I am also, of course, forever in the debt of those andreense
participants and social activists who gave of their time to a stranger,
who took me in, dried me when I arrived soaking from a flash storm, fed
me and trusted me like family. Perhaps the only way I can repay some
of their hospitality and good will is to give a faithful rendering of what I
experienced and the story the data tell. I would also like to acknowledge
Thaisa de Andrade, Jefferson Mainardes and Robison Chagas in Ponta
Grossa-PR, for their help and support.
This manuscript grew and took shape over a period when I was a Post-
Doctoral Fellow at the Digital Ethnography Research Centre, at RMIT
University. I would in particular like to thank Tania Lewis for helping me
