"This book provides a rare bottom-up perspective on Peruvian democracy during the crisis-ridden 1980s, and it makes a major contribution to scholarly understanding of the prospects for—and the limits to—grassroots democracy in contemporary Latin America."-Kenneth Roberts, University of New Mexico

"This book tests a variety of theoretical propositions concerning the complex and even contradictory interactions among urban popular movements, local-level authorities, the electoral left, and NGOs—a laudable, long overdue, and ambitious task. . . . Schönwälder knows the relevant literatures extremely well; again and again he distills into manageable and testable form the often gaseous notions that dominate many discussions. While synthetic in many ways, this book is also empirical and descriptive, and therefore offers new information on Peru as it tests and probes the theoretical literature."—Henry Dietz, University of Texas

With the role of local government becoming more important as Latin American countries moved away from state-led development models in the 1980s, and with social movements helping to bring about the transition to democracy, questions arose about whether and how popular participation at the local level might be able to contribute to the consolidation of democracy from the grassroots upward. This book, based on extensive research in low-income districts of Lima, provides a sophisticated analysis of the relationship between a resurgent civil society and democratization.

Exploring the complex interactions among urban popular movements, local government, political parties, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), Schönwälder shows that the democratic potential of these movements is genuine but that their influence has been limited. His balanced assessment credits their achievements while illuminating the sources of their failures, mainly a variety of institutional barriers and a persistent threat of manipulation and co-optation by stronger actors, especially political parties. His analysis helps us understand better why the left has so often failed to convert its considerable support at the grassroots into political successes at higher levels.