Direct democracy in León, Nicaragua: Citizen participation, empowerment, and the influence on the democratic character of local governance

Abstract

In the context of decentralization and democratization increasingly attention has been given in Latin America to ways in which the population can further contribute to the political decision-making process, particularly that of municipal governments. This has led to the introduction of various forms of ‘direct democracy’ all over Latin America that aim to deepen the existing forms of representative democracy. Citizen participation is a form in which citizens can influence the decision-making process in a structural way. In various countries laws have been approved to arrange citizen participation; one of those countries is Nicaragua. In Nicaragua citizen participation was legally organized for the first time through the ‘Ley de Participación Ciudadana’ of 2003 that offered citizens various forms of political participation. Recently, in 2007, newly elected president Daniel Ortega introduced a new form of citizen participation through presidential decree; the ‘Consejos del Poder Ciudadano’ (CPC’s). This has caused the existing power relations between citizens and the government to change and to be re-negotiated on the local level.

This thesis is a case study of citizen participation in the municipality of León. It describes and analyzes forms of citizen participation in an effort to find out to what extent they empower citizens in León and contribute to the democratic character of local governance.