Participation to avoid elite capture in communication policies. Lessons from Latin America

SEGURA, MARÍA SOLEDAD; LINARES, ALEJANDRO

Observatorio (OBS*) Journal

PKP Publishing Services

Lugar: Lisboa; Año: 2023 vol. 17 p. 127 - 142

1646-5954

How did participatory state institutions of communication policies created in Argentina, Ecuador,Mexico, and Uruguay face capture by political and economic elites? In this article a comparativeapproach is used to answer this question. The research addresses regulation and its implementationbased on the methodological guide provided by the concept of citizen participation. Diversity,implementation, incidence, autonomy, and transparency are the axes that organized the analysis,which includes qualitative and quantitative information built from documents, specific bibliography,and interviews.The article concludes that participatory bodies have occasionally either limited the capture of policiesor generated valuable experiences, at least temporarily. However, they have failed to prevent thecapture of policies by economic and political elites. Therefore, the influence attained was not enoughto produce changes in the communication system. Nevertheless, there have been a number ofpositive results, albeit unintended and difficult to measure, related to the enrichment of democraticand civic practices.