ABSTRACT
Whether citizen interests and preferences are represented in government, and whether or not citizens can hold their governments accountable, is a critical de ning feature of modern mass democracies. In Latin America, institutions of representation and accountability were historically weak. In what have been called “elitist democracies,” large segments of the population were excluded from political and economic life, popular interests went underrepresented, and mechanisms of accountability were nonexistent. In the past three decades as democratization has broadened access to national and local political life, loosened restrictions on association, and leveled the playing eld for old and new parties to compete for constituents that in earlier periods did not enjoy the full rights of citizenship, the challenges to tried-and-true forms of political representation and accountability to deepen their reach and the opportunities for new ones to take root have multiplied. Whether these opportunities have always been realized, in what ways, and why, is the subject of this chapter.
