This volume describes and analyzes the proliferation of new mechanisms for participation in Latin American democracies and considers the relationship between direct participation and the consolidation of representative institutions based on more traditional electoral conceptions of democracy.

"Rather than assume that institutions of participatory democracy necessarily compete for political influence with more traditional institutions of representative democracy, New Institutions for Participatory Democracy in Latin America explores how the two might reinforce each other in positive ways that can improve the quality of democratic governance in the region. Based on case studies from six countries across Latin America, the volume is empirically rich and theoretically innovative." - Philip Oxhorn, Institute for the Study of International Development, McGill University, Canada

"This volume provides a consistently original, insightful, and balanced overview of Latin America's diverse efforts to deepen democracy through governance innovations that institutionalize citizen voice." - Jonathan Fox, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA

"Elected politicians do not enjoy particularly high approval ratings in most contemporary democracies and certainly not in Latin America. In an attempt to bridge the gulf between voters and their representatives, a growing number of the region's young democracies have experimented with new avenues of "direct democracy." This illuminating collaborative study explores the range and variability of such innovations, using fresh and first-hand research and observation. The picture that emerges is mixed and by no means stable." - Laurence Whitehead, Nuffield College, University of Oxford, UK