Program of Study on the Public Domain - PEEP

Line of Research: Policy and Strategy
Coordinator: Prof. Sonia Fleury

Presentation

Latin America is experiencing an unprecedented transformation process, which can be seen in economic, political, cultural and societal terms. These changes can be examined from two juxtaposed frames of transference, namely from the state through to society and from the central control through to the local sphere.

Consequently new interfaces are being formed between the State, the Market and the Community in institutionally differentiated ways, thus requiring innovative processes of public insertion, integration, coordination and management.

As part of the democratization process, we are witnessing the restructuring of the social fabric and the fight against exclusion and towards the expansion of civic rights. This appearance of a socially conscious public reinvigorates civil society and demands change in relation to the institutionalism of the State.

We are also seeing, albeit in a fragmented fashion, the establishment of state structures and processes able to reflect and press forward changes in the public power structure towards populational groups, territorial segments, administrative spheres and sectors previously excluded by the group in power.

In a paradoxical manner, this transformational tension coexists with traditional institutional structures feudally entrenched in factions of the political and economic elites involving patrimonial, nepotistic, corrupt and discriminatory social practices. Faced with this situation of resistance to change, society often fights back with anomic and/or violent individual strategies. This gives rise to a permanent crisis in governance and outlaws the political representation structures and the whole apparatus of public policy associated with the corporative and/or elitist pact.

The fragmentation of society into polarized groups and cultures, rather than an expression of tolerance and pluralism in a post-modern context as might be thought at first glance, is in fact an indication of the loss of the collective dimension - identified as being the national community of citizens. This occurs, either because the condition of belonging is denied to those who suffer different forms of exclusion, or because of disenchantment with politics, restricted to the institutional dimension. Consequently, the construction of identities ends up becoming a product of the media and the market, a consumer asset, a collective volatile identity, underscored by insatiable consumer behavior. The exacerbation of subjectivity alienated from citizenship and emancipation (Boaventura Santos, 1994:232) generates forms of social interaction in which narcissism and perversion become the norm.

Macro-economic and macro-social phenomena involved in the processes of economic liberation, in the transformation of productive processes and in social relations in production and changes in the structure and dynamics of the labor market all result in the loss of the centralization of labor as the driving force behind social integration. This causes a profound transformation in the traditional points of reference of the Nation-state and the social identities, which were created by dint of labor participation, generating growing social alienation processes (Castel, 1995), which increase the desegregation and distrust in institutions.

A globalized public due to the advances in communication technologies, albeit deeply rooted in the fabric of the social structure of each country, means that, at the same time and paradoxically, citizenship is positioned at a worldwide level and that a profound distancing of individuals exists between individuals in relation to their local and national territorial and political bases. Alienation, insecurity and fear become part of the daily existence of a public, which is fragmented by the incidence of rules and procedures of exclusion and segregation.

All these alterations have a profound effect on the process of reconstruction of the public domain which has prevailed as part of the processes of economic democratization and restructuring, currently occurring in Latin American societies.

Major transformations are being implemented in the relationship between the State and Civil Society. Chief among these are the substitution of centralized and monopolistic representation structures by a polycentric configuration. In this context, the decision-marking processes and the implementation of public policy tend to involve a greater dispersion of power with the incorporation of differentiated interests.

What public policies and institutional mechanisms could be implemented that might react in an effective manner to these new demands and the need for a consolidation of the methods of the autonomous organization of society? Also, how will these new management models transform state structures towards more efficient and democratic practices? These are the concerns that guide the study and research conducted within the scope of the Program of Study on the Public Domain (PEEP). The central objective is so identify the transformations in the relationship between State and Society which underpin new practices geared to democratic governance, by means of the institutionalization of public sectors which censure civic, plural and deliberative participation.