Rethink governance to navigate uncertainty and discontent

The world lives in times of high uncertainty.

The pace of historical events seems to have accelerated and with it our perception of normalcy and relative safety has been disrupted.

Shocks of various kinds overlap and their effects feed off each other: the pandemic that does not end, a war that takes the world by surprise, and the increase in the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events.

However, although these events are manifested in all countries, the consequences are experienced very differently depending on the capacity of political systems to process the conflict.

In other words, it is governance –understood as the process through which state and non-state actors interact to design and implement certain policies– that mediates between an external shock and the magnitude of its consequences in each country.

73% of the population of Latin America considers that “it is governed by a few powerful groups for their own benefit

In Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) the countries have reacted in a heterogeneous manner and in many cases insufficiently to the overlapping crises.

The region is marked by the growing distance and bitterness between the different political expressions, by the difficulty of trusting leaders and platforms that aggregate preferences, and in a transversal way, by a feeling of profound injustice.

The data collected by the 2021

is very representative : 73% of the population considers that "it is governed by a few powerful groups for their own benefit."

This scenario has obstructed the possibility of reaching social agreements and, therefore, of adopting a clear and flexible route to navigate uncertainty.

The situation requires rethinking governance in democracy that puts the magnifying glass in the negotiating

from which public policies and the rules of the game emerge.

It is essential to understand how this negotiation

works because it is there where the asymmetries of power between the different actors are manifested and dynamics of social inequality are reproduced.

In other words, governance in democracy requires not only legitimacy in the results, but also legitimacy in the process of how those results are reached, for example, the plurality and balance of the channels of participation in the public

.

There are four avenues for citizen participation in a functioning democracy: elections, political parties, social movements, and public deliberation.

These routes show some strengths, but above all, challenges in the region.

Despite the growing political conflict, one of its strengths is the holding of regular, free and, in many cases, exemplary elections.

Even in the most difficult moments of the pandemic, the majority continued to believe that the vote is the main tool to punish or validate those who exercise power.

This is a fundamental commitment to the foundations of democracy and it must be a priority to continue protecting it.

Even in the most difficult moments of the pandemic, the majority continued to believe that the vote is the main tool to punish or validate those who exercise power.

On the other hand, political parties, understood as the agents par excellence for aggregating interests and preferences in a representative democracy, are experiencing a profound crisis of legitimacy.

Discontent with them is one of the factors that generates the prevailing electoral volatility: for example, of the 18 presidential elections that took place in the region between 2018 and 2021, in almost 70% of them the ruling party was defeated and, in many cases, , was defeated by figures outside the traditional party system and opponents of it.

It is unthinkable to maintain a functional democracy without a party system that is reasonably robust and representative of the plurality of social interests.

Another way to aggregate interests and bring social demands to the public bargaining

is through civil society.

However, while the space of civil society in LAC has increased rapidly since 1980, it has decreased in recent years.

Different governments have imposed obstacles for the establishment and subsistence of Civil Society Organizations.

In addition, there is an effort by various political actors to disrupt public deliberation in both traditional media and social networks.

When the path of institutional representation is perceived as blocked, the population looks for other ways, mainly direct, to make their discontent known.

In this sense, social protest has been on the rise in the region: the number of demonstrations doubled between 2018 and 2021. One of the most worrying signs is that in many cases they have ended in violent confrontations with the forces of order.

Even so, democracy has managed to withstand the onslaught.

Despite the drop in support for this political system collected in various surveys, this has not been offset by an increase in support for openly authoritarian options.

What has grown is the percentage of people who, disillusioned, are indifferent to the fate of democracy.

Every crisis implies a redistribution of power and this must be seen as an opportunity to bring new actors into the negotiating

and discuss new policies and rules with clear development objectives.

Given this moment of social reordering that the region is experiencing, we emphasize that the key to stability is how this conflict is processed through effective governance (which generates positive results in development) in democracy.

With the idea of ​​rethinking governance in times of uncertainty and social unrest, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) launched the Joint Initiative to Strengthen Governance in LAC.

Its main objective is to produce public policy recommendations that offer tangible answers to the challenges identified so that they can be used by experts in public policies, decision makers, organized civil society groups and interested citizens.

UNDP and IDEA make an open invitation to join this initiative in order to enrich the perspectives and contributions in this urgent task.

Luis Felipe López Calva

is regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

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