Thread by @GabrielHetland

Today's book publication day! 🧵 on the book

* Rich ethnography of urban governance and popular participation in cities in Venezuela and Bolivia
* New theory of the relationship between democracy and the left and right
* Theory of leftist hegemony and how it shapes the Right 1/n

The heart of the book is case studies of governance in a left- and right-run city in Venezuela and Bolivia. In vivid detail I show how citizens in some cities gained remarkable control over political decisions but in other cities political and civic elites controlled this. 2/n

It's not surprising participation works in some cities but not others.

What IS SURPRISING is that participation worked well in the left- AND right-run cities in Venezuela and not in the right OR left-run cities in Bolivia.

This flies in the face of much existing thought. 3/n

The urban participation literature shows participatory success (i.e. citizens exerting real control over decisions) is much more likely in cities run by pro-participation left parties aligned with a strong and autonomous civil society. Think Porto Alegre, Brazil under the PT 4/n

Based on this I expected success in the two left-run cities and failure in the two right-run cities. And I expected more success in Bolivia (with it's movement-left ruling party) than Venezuela (with it's left-populist ruling party).

But that's not what I found. 5/n

So how to explain the success of participation in left- and right-run Venezuelan cities and failure in left- and right-run Bolivian cities?

I say: the interaction of national and local politics, and particularly the presence of leftist hegemony in Venezuela and not Bolivia 6/n

Evidence I present shows that under Chávez Venezuela's ruling party succeeded in transforming politics such that political opponents, including those on the Right, had to 'play politics' on Chavismo's left-populist terrain. The Vzln Right was forced to support participation 7/n

In Morales-era Bolivia, the left ruling party failed to achieve a form of leftist hegemony (though the party was successful in many other important ways). This meant the Right there did not face pressure to adopt its practices to those of the ruling party. 8/n

These changes are particularly visible in urban politics with left and right mayors in Venezuela robustly supporting participatory budgeting, while right and (surprisingly) left mayors in Bolivia worked to thwart participation and exercise control over civil society. 9/n

This points to a broader difference btwn Venezuela and Bolivia at the left turn's height, with Venezuela developing a left-populist hegemonic regime and Bolivia a passive revolutionary regime. In short: Chávez mobilized the people, and Morales demobilized the people 10/n

That's of course a simplification, and I get into the many contradictions of left-populist hegemony in Venezuela, where the ruling party mobilized and tried to control popular classes. I also show Morales selectively mobilized popular forces through 2010 before demobilizing. 11/n

The big takeaways of the book:

1. A new theory of relationship of democracy and the left and right. Existing thought shows the Left historically pushed to extend and deepen democracy, while the Right pushed to limit and end democracy (think coups in 20th C. LatAm) 12/n

One way of thinking about this is that the Left has pushed to make democracy more "real" (i.e. deeper and more extensive) and the Right has pushed to make democracy more "safe" (i.e. constrained to a narrowly defined political sphere, not touching econ + social rights). 13/n

In the book I show that under certain circumstances - specifically the presence of leftist hegemony - the Right can be compelled to embrace and promote democracy even when it's "unsafe" in the sense of posing a real or apparent heightened threat to elite interests. 14/n

This is analogous to the better-known effect of rightwing forms of hegemony, of which Margaret Thatcher is a great exemplar. When she was asked in 2002 what her greatest accomplishment was, she said, "Tony Blair" adding 'we forced our opponents to change their minds.' 15/n

Leftist hegemony has a similar effect: it forces the Right to change its mind. I show this in my case study of a center-right-run Vzln city where an anti-Chavista opposition mayor embraced Chavista language, laws and institutional forms in large part due to leftist hegemony. 16/n

Second big takeaway of the book:

To understand success/failure of local participation we should pay more attention to national-level politics. I show this is key to explaining why apparently similar cities in diff. countries have strikingly different participatory outcomes 17/n

Third big takeaway:

To understand the strategies leftist leaders take in office we need to examine left regimes' "reactions to the reaction", i.e. how they respond to rightwing backlash. Chávez responded viz populist mobilization, while Morales did so through demobilization 18/n

And that was a key factor that shaped left and right forms of politics, at the urban and national levels, in both countries. So...if we want to understand the strategy a leftist leader adopts in office, pay attention to how they respond to rightwing backlash. 19/n

Big takeaway four:

We need to rethink Venezuela and Bolivia as left turn cases. They have some notable similarities, as many have noted they're both comparatively radical left turn cases. But the differences are important and not what we'd expect: viz. Chávez-era Venezuela 20/n

offered an unexpectedly propitious terrain for urban participation, while Morales-era Bolivia was an unexpectedly unpropitious terrain for this. This means we need to partially rethinking left-populist and movement-left parties. They must be seen in a dynamic relational way 21/n

There's a lot more in the book! When I re-read it a few weeks back I particularly enjoyed the thick ethnographies of the four cities. More than anything else I think that's what sets the book apart from much of the lit on the left turn. 22/n

There's so many people to thank: the communities where I lived and researched, my partner and family, friends, advisors and mentors (who along with my partner made the book much more readable), and the wonderful @ColumbiaUP editorial and production team. 23/n

Buy your copy today! If you do so here you can get 20% off with the code CUP. And if you've enjoyed reading this thread, please stay tuned for info on book talks, podcast interviews and more in the works! 24/24

cup.columbia.edu/book/democracy…

CORRECTION: Discount code is CUP20 to get 20% off, not CUP. Apologies.