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Why Latin America Is a Hotbed of Political Innovation https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/why-latin-america-hotbe...

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February 1, 2018 Caio Tendolini

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For the past decade, as trust in institutions has declined around the globe, politics in many countries
has seemingly turned into a contest pitting self-interested “elites” against everyone else. And as the
conviction that “elites” don’t represent the interests of “the people” has become increasingly common,
two alternative ways forward have become ascendant, too. One path is rooted in populism and
represented by the building of walls, both literal and figurative. The other is inclusive, and founded on
collaboration and trust.

At Instituto Update, we aim to help people choose the inclusive option by rebuilding and fostering
collaboration and trust between citizens and their governments.

After years of authoritarian rule in many countries, a wave of political innovation is sweeping across

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Why Latin America Is a Hotbed of Political Innovation https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/why-latin-america-hotbe...

Latin America. A 20th century model of government is slowly but surely giving way to more
participatory and inclusive democracies in the 21st century. No longer do Latin American citizens and
governments have to rely on trends and practices in the United States and Europe.

The world can look to Latin America as a source of inspiration for how citizens can reclaim and
advance democracy. There’s a sense that it is being done better and differently in Latin America
because that’s the only way to tackle its most deeply rooted problems, including economic inequality,
social injustice, corruption, racism, sexism, and environmental degradation.

For example, Instituto Update conducted a massive amount of research in Latin America and
discovered more than 600 initiatives that are trying to close the gap between citizens and
governments by increasing political participation, improving transparency and accountability,
encouraging innovation in government, and doing more to develop independent media.

We also interviewed nearly 300 activists, civil society leaders, politicians, and scholars working to
improve politics and governance. One outcome of this project is a four episode television series called
Política: modo de usar (A How-To Guide For Politics), which was broadcast on Globo News, Brazil’s
largest news channel, in November 2017.

Based on the interviews, we discovered five principal ways in which Latin Americans are developing,
experimenting, and implementing new tools and methods to boost political participation and trust in
government and the political process.

First, citizens have taken it upon themselves to push for social change. From protests such as the
Secundarista Movement in Brazil, where students pushed for educational reforms in São Paulo’s
public high schools (the movement later spread across Brazil), to #YoSoy132 in México, in which
students protested political corruption during the 2012 presidential election), citizens are developing
innovative ways to mobilize resources and pressure elected officials and bureaucrats in order to
pursue public policy changes.

Second, political activists are discovering new and better ways to explain complicated public policy to
their fellow citizens. From the Latin American feminist movements demanding reproductive rights and
bringing attention to the issue of domestic violence—#PrimaveraFeminista, #NiUnaMenos—to Pimp
My Carroça, a Brazilian organization that uses street art to raise the profile of those who collect
recyclable materials, and GregNews, a comedy news show (basically Last Week Tonight with John
Oliver in Brazil), activists and organizations are using social media and humor to bring citizens closer
to public interest issues.

Third, elected officials are making an effort to make institutions more participatory and inclusive.
Efforts ranging from DemocracyOS (Argentina) and LinQ (Ecuador) to Brazil’s Internet Bill of Rights
and the Nariño state government’s GANA (Colombia) have made great strides in mobilizing people
and giving them a voice in the policymaking process. For example, in Brazil, the Ministry of Justice, in
partnership with NGOs and civil society, sought buy-in from citizens on its internet law through online
engagement and a lengthy comment period.

Fourth, civil society organizations are combining open data and technology to monitor and hold
politicians and corporations accountable. Groups like Paraguay’s A Quienes Elegimos, Argentina’s
Chequeado, and Chile’s Del Dicho al Hecho using well-developed online tools and well-organized
public protests to insist on transparency from even their own supporters in government.

2 de 8 28-02-2018 19:34
Why Latin America Is a Hotbed of Political Innovation https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/why-latin-america-hotbe...

And finally, there’s a recognition that politics across Latin America needs new voices and new people
to get involved. Today, movements such as Mexico’s WikiPolítica and Brazil’s Bancada Ativista, as
well as new political parties like Chile’s Revolución Democrática and Argentina’s Partido de la Red,
are working to make politics accessible, cool, and honorable to a new generation of activists.

Part of Instituto Update’s effort is to foster connections between citizens and public institutions.
Together with Democracia en Red, Asuntos del Sur, Avina, and Ciudadano Inteligente, we have been
building regional alliances to connect and exchange ideas and lessons learned on how to improve
governance and politics throughout Latin America. Red de Innovación Política and Conexiones
Latinoamericanas de Innovación Política are concrete examples of this collective effort.

Instituto Update will continue to be at the forefront of these efforts to democratize Latin American
politics and to improve accountability. Looking ahead, we’ll be focusing our efforts to expand our work
beyond São Paulo and into Brazil’s cities, so that our work is more accessible to all of Brazil’s citizens.
And, since it’s an election year, we’re going to keep focusing on new and innovative ways to improve
political participation.

Instituto Update is a grantee of the Open Society Foundations.

Latin America & the Caribbean, Governance & Accountability, Latin America Program, Anticorruption

HIDE ADD YOUR VOICE

Robert LaFalce
submitted on Feb 3, 2018
Excellent piece. It is refreshing to read how Latin American citizens are
encouraged to participate in, not only elections, but in raising awareness
of their governments and of course, their participation in politics.

reply

Caio Tendolini
submitted on Feb 7, 2018
Hey Robert

Thanks for the comment, Latin America is a political innovation lab


that is worth looking at! And this year we have a dozen election
cycles in the region which will be crucial for the democratic future
of the region.

reply

Mary Ker
submitted on Feb 3, 2018
This was like a tease. Now I want much, much more information about
these various approaches. Where can I find it?

reply

3 de 8 28-02-2018 19:34
Why Latin America Is a Hotbed of Political Innovation https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/why-latin-america-hotbe...

Hey Mary

You can search through our mapping here:


https://www.institutoupdate.org.br/

We are not producing much content in english, since our focus is


Latin America, but if we find enough demand we can start a english
newsletter (ours is still only in Portuguese).

Any ideias on how we can have english-speaking audiences more


connected?

best

reply

Scann
submitted on Feb 5, 2018
Partido de la Red and DemocracyOS as innovative experiences in
Argentina? The researcher doesn't know anything about Argentina to point
out those experiences as "innovative" or helping Democracy in any way.
Partido de la Red never got the authorization to function as a Political
Party -you need a certain amount of signatures from people that backs
your Party in Argentina before you can even call yourself a Party-,
probably it doesn't even exist anymore. AFAIK, they only exist in Twitter.

reply

Caio Tendolini
submitted on Feb 11, 2018
Hey Scann

You are right regarding the current status of Partido de La Red


(they were unable to get a definitive authorization to become a
party), yet they actually got the permit to run for the 2013 elections
- a provisory one, and ran a campaign that got around 25 thousand
votes in Buenos Aires. This experiment, by itself, was innovative in
checking how citizens would react to such a radical participatory
process in decision making - this is why we mentioned it here. You
can read about it here http://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias/2013/10
/131025_argentina_partido_red_jrg and here
http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1623182-el-partido-que-propone-votar-
leyes-po....

Regarding DemocracyOS, the platform is currently used in several


countries outside Latin America (check some of the deployments
here: https://github.com/DemocracyOS/democracyos), showing
precisely how technology produced in Latin America has
resonance worldwide.

If you have any more exemples of political innovation in Argentina,

4 de 8 28-02-2018 19:34
Why Latin America Is a Hotbed of Political Innovation https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/why-latin-america-hotbe...

please let us know.

reply

Ana
submitted on Feb 7, 2018
Thank you guys for documenting these advances. Please keep us up to
date on where and how to get more info.

reply

Caio Tendolini
submitted on Feb 11, 2018
Hey Ana

Currently we have our mapping online (we are working on updating


it right now) and a newsletter (only in portuguese)

www.institutoupdate.org.br

reply

Claudia Bosch
submitted on Feb 8, 2018
Interesting read, thank you! It made me remeber the work of LATINNO
(https://www.latinno.net/en/). Is Instituto Update already cooperating in
some way? If not it might be interesting for you.

reply

Caio Tendolini
submitted on Feb 11, 2018
Hey Claudia

We are very fond of the Latinno project. Currently, we are not


collaborating directly, but for us what we do is complementary
because we are more focused on the political behavior of latin
american leaderships, the plurality of organizations and the
technologies being produced. Latinno goes deeper on the
effectiveness of public policies that foster participation, which
reaches many interesting conclusions.

reply

Claudia Bosch
submitted on Feb 13, 2018
Thank you for your reply Caio. I will keep myself updated as
I am especially interested in the processes of making
(in)visibile the plurality of organizations and their forms of
acting (I do research on youth participation in Northern Peru
to learn more about "gray" or "liminal" - or less visible -
spaces of participation). In this regard your way of mapping
seems to be very promising. Mucha suerte con Instituto
Update!

5 de 8 28-02-2018 19:34
Why Latin America Is a Hotbed of Political Innovation https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/why-latin-america-hotbe...

reply

Pablo Girault
submitted on Feb 8, 2018
Great ideas to implement in Mexico

reply

Caio Tendolini
submitted on Feb 11, 2018
Hey Pablo

Mexico has already some incredible initiatives running. Personally,


i am very fond of WikiPolítica, R3D, Horizontal, Por Mexico Hoy,
Agencia Fosforo and Instituto Simone de Beauvoir. Check them
out!

reply

Alvaro Cabrera
submitted on Feb 11, 2018
This article is really interesting and inspiring as well. I would be definitely
interested in to receiving a newsletter in English or Spanish to have more
information about political innovation methods and practices in América
Latina. Is there a website where I can find the theoretical or more science
based framework of all these programmes?

reply

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6 de 8 28-02-2018 19:34
Why Latin America Is a Hotbed of Political Innovation https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/why-latin-america-hotbe...

Caio Tendolini
Caio Tendolini is the cofounder of Instituto Update.

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7 de 8 28-02-2018 19:34
Why Latin America Is a Hotbed of Political Innovation https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/why-latin-america-hotbe...

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