Participatory Democracy in Latin America: the Use of the Draw as Democratic Device for a post-State Governance

In Latin America, especially in the Andean countries, Central America, Mexico and Brazil, the legitimacy of the political and administrative institutions were weakened by the successive failures of the welfare (years 60-80), and then neoliberal (1990-2000) State building to articulate universal, effective and democratic social policies. However, and paradoxically, these failures were accompanied by the development of a democratic and participatory imperative. This imperative is particularly expressed in the conduct of numerous participatory experiences, such as participatory budgeting, and the adoption of a comprehensive legal and constitutional regulation on this issue. Consequently, today the traditional conception of pyramidal and hierarchical functioning of the State and the administration is questioned in favor a networked and participatory government conception called post-State governance. In this context, it is argued that the (re)introduction of a tool like the draw and the effective implementation of previous consultation could favor both the democratization of the public institutions and the society as struggle clientelism, corruption and nepotism. So, Latin America would be well to the front of participatory democratic experimentation and construction of a new governance model.