The Governing Left in Uruguay (2005–2015): A Participatory Democratic Experiment

• Author: José Miguel Busquets,Nicolás Bentancur
• DOI: 10.1177/0094582X18807488
• Published date: 01 January 2019
• Date: 01 January 2019
• Subject Matter: Articles

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 224, Vol. 46 No. 1, January 2019, 137–151

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X18807488

© 2018 Latin American Perspectives

137

The Governing Left in Uruguay (2005–2015)

A Participatory Democratic Experiment

by

Nicolás Bentancur and José Miguel Busquets

Translated by

Victoria J. Furio

An account of the first 10 years of government of a leftist party in Uruguay—the

Frente Amplio—focusing on a mode of designing public policies that prioritized participa-

tion by civil society organizations suggests that this strategy distinguishes it from the

preceding traditional party administrations and challenges the “liberal-democratic” label

assigned to it by some of the high-profile specialized literature.

Este análisis de los primeros diez años de gobierno de un partido de izquierda—el

Frente Amplio—en Uruguay, hace foco en una modalidad de construcción de las políticas

públicas que incorporó de manera jerarquizada la participación de la sociedad civil. Se

argumenta que representa una estrategia alternativa a la desarrollada por los gobiernos de

centro-derecha que le precedieron, que no encaja bien en la categoría “liberal democrática”

en la que la sitúa parte de la literatura especializada.

Keywords: Political participation, Left, Frente Amplio, Uruguay, Latin America

In the late 1990s, a historical cycle in which center-right parties predomi-

nated, implementing public policies mostly associated with the neoliberal par-

adigm, ended in Latin America. Electoral victories of left and center-left parties

in several countries in the region beginning in the next decade strengthened the

view that a “left turn” was under way (Cleary, 2006; Panizza, 2005). Uruguay

was not immune to this regional trend. In 2005 a leftist political party, the Frente

Amplio, came to power. It was formed in 1971 as a coalition of parties and sec-

tors stemming from the unification of the workers’ movement five years earlier.

Its immediate goal was to remedy the political crisis then afflicting the country,

which would lead to the onset of a long dictatorship two years later, but also to

promote structural reforms in the state, the economy, and the society. Nearly

half a century later and through a long process of resistance and consolidation,

the inclusion of progressive sectors, the broadening of social alliances, and the

moderation of its programmatic proposals, it ultimately brought Tabaré

Vázquez to the presidency. His administration and that of José “Pepe” Mujica

five years later enjoyed widespread electoral support from the population,

Nicolás Bentancur and José Miguel Busquets are both members of the faculty at the Instituto de

Ciencia Política of the Universidad de la República in Montevideo. Victoria J. Furio is a translator

living in New York City.

807488LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X18807488Latin American PerspectivesBentancur And Busquets/Participatory Democracy In Uruguay

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