ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the relationship between democratization, citizen participation and democratic consolidation in South America. The third wave of democratic transitions that spread across the region started in 1978. It triggered a subsequent wave of constitutional reform and constitution-writing exercises. A significant aspect of these reforms was the introduction of alternative mechanisms of citizen participation. These reforms raised hopes that the development of a new participatory style of democracy would help to overcome the elitist and socially exclusionary character of the outgoing military regimes. Focusing on a particular institutional feature, the adoption of mechanisms of direct democracy (MDD), this chapter sets out to assess the impact of participatory institutions on democratic consolidation and the quality of democracy in the region. To do so, it proceeds in three steps. The first section renders a comparative account of the political settings that brought about the adoption of national level MDD in South America. The second section provides an overview of the institutional frameworks regulating these mechanisms. The third section introduces some of the most critical and significant practical applications of MDD, in order to illustrate their interaction with existing institutional settings and the impact on democratization and democratic consolidation.
