Accountability Politics: Power and Voice in Rural Mexico (Oxford Studies in Democratization)

This book explores the how civil society "thickens" by comparing two decades of rural citizens' struggles to hold the Mexican state accountable, exploring both change and continuity before, during, and after national electoral turning points. The book addresses how much power-sharing really happens in policy innovations that include participatory social and environmental councils, citizen oversight of elections, local government social investment funds, participation reforms in World Bank projects, community-managed food programs, as well as new social oversight and public information access reforms. Meanwhile, efforts to exercise voice unfold at the same time as rural citizens consider their exit options, as millions migrate to the US, where many have since come together in a new migrant civil society.

Jonathan Fox was born in New York City and studied politics at Princeton University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is Professor in the interdisciplinary Latin American and Latino Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He has published widely on issues of development policy, democratization, institutional reform and migrant civil society. He began carrying out field research in Mexico in 1982, and has also worked in Brazil, Latin America, and the Philippines. He works with a diverse array of public interest groups, development agencies, social organizations, and private foundations.