Sammendrag
This project explores the ways in which people perceive of and act in relation to political issues, like elections and the distribution of material and symbolic resources in this community in the outskirts of Mexico City. How do practices of clientelism and indigenous forms of government interact with the principles and procedures of liberal democracy?
Vis fullstendig beskrivelse
Vitenskapelig sammendrag
This project explores practices and notions of democracy and participation and how these interact with the ideals and procedures of liberal democracy. Mexico has a long history of electoral democracy, although in the period 1929 - 2000 the president always represented the same party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party. From 2000 onwards, however, elections in Mexico have been progressively multiparty, organized by an independent electoral institute, and internationally recognized as free and fair. Liberal democracy is constituted by a series of rights pertaining to the individual, while Mexico features a series of political traditions which contrast these ideas, as for instance clientelist political practices, and communitarian indigenous forms of government. These practices challenge the presumed class, ethnic and gender equalities. This project explores the lived experiences of members in a specific native village in this crossfire between ethnic, gender and class inequalities, and liberal democracy. A fundamental issue is the manifold socio-religious practices carried out in the community and the networks which grow from these practices. The purpose is to explore and document these practices and notions, and bring them to bear on issues of political importance, as for instance participation in elections, perceptions of electoral processes, analysis of power processes, decisions over community resources, environmental issues and deforestation, struggles over land and water resources.
Vis fullstendig beskrivelse