THE UNDERSTANDING OF DEMOCRACY CONSTRUCTED IN CIVIL SOCIETY’S DISCOURSE - A COMPARATIVE CASE STUDY OF CHILE AND URUGUAY
 

Mass movements and protests as for example in Hong Kong, the USA or Chile in the last months have risen international attention. Despite of the various reasons for why the protests have started and what the protestors aim to change, they are united by a common cause. The people protesting all over the world demand a degree of participation in the democracy they live in and challenge the understanding of democracy of those conducting it.

This research therefore aims to examine the understanding of democracy from a civil society’s point of view, because with regard to the protests, it seems like the understanding of democracy might not be as unitary as possibly believed. Against the background of the protests in Chile that have started in October 2019 where numerous Chileans expressed their demand for a new constitution, Chile is taken as an example to research the civil society’s understanding of democracy.

In Chile, which has internationally been recognised as an outstanding democracy in the Latin American context, the civil society seems to challenge its role in the democracy and the existing restrictions on participating in it. In order to broaden the perspectives on this matter and to include the point of view of a civil society that is ostensibly not reacting as contentiously towards the government as in Chile, the case of Uruguay is taken as a comparison. Both are considered exemplary democracies in the Latin American region, whereas a comparison can be interesting and meaningful, possibly also for the application on other cases. Therefore, the main research question examines

How do civil societies in Latin America understand democracy and their role within it?

Within this research, the diversity of theories on democracy and civil society are acknowledged as it is aimed to understand the perception of civil societies on these two concepts in their discursive construction. Thus, the research is based on social constructionism accepting the social reality that civil society organisations expose in their discourse. As a method of analysis, a discourse analysis is therefore chosen which is conducted based on the discussion of theories and relevant literature on the concepts civil society and democracy.

The analysis shows that most of the civil society organisations in Chile and Uruguay do not only claim for institutional or legislation changes, but aspire to change the societal and cultural perception of the topics they work on. Therefore, the organisations are inclined to improve civic education and participation in the democracy through an enhanced interaction with individual and institutional actors. Apart from the potential of the civil society to attain institutional as well as societal changes, which presuppose and reinforce each other, the civil society is able to augment the dialogue and rapprochement of the individuals, representing the private sphere, and the institutional actors, constituting the political sphere.

It results in the empowerment of civil societies to play a crucial role within democracies through their ability in actively communicating the interests of the society. Thus, academically the concepts democracy and civil society should always be considered together as they reciprocally support and condition each other. In practice, Chile and Uruguay both represent cases where civil societies endorse the democracies in different phases and with different emphases. Subsequently, the combination of both cases can constitute examples on how civil societies understand themselves in the context of a democracy and how it can possibly be applied to other cases. This research shows that the civil society takes up different approaches in the democratic transition or consolidation process and furthermore, challenges the perception that civil society can be measured by its heterogeneity and degree of contestation. However, further research is needed in order to examine the possible application and in order to show that democracy can also be understood to be constructed from below.