CITIZEN PARTICIPATION IN OVERCOMING POVERTY REALITY AND CHALLENGES FOR CHILEAN DEMOCRACY

Abstract

Citizen participation is a polysemic concept whose political use accentuates this characteristic. Looking beyond the literature that extols the virtues of participation, this article asserts that, in unequal societies with large excluded sectors in a situation of poverty, it is possible, by clarifying the concept’s meaning, to link participation and the defeat of poverty. The article argues that, in these cases, participation will contribute to overcoming poverty only if it involves a redistribution of power, which makes the concept an object of important political dispute. The article addresses conceptual dimensions of the relationship between the two processes. It analyzes regulation of participation in the Chilean case, identifying numerous limitations, and examines some challenges and proposals for incorporating citizen participation as a component of policies to overcome poverty in a framework of the deepening of democracy in Chile.