In this foreword to the book Democratizing the State, Jonathan Fox introduces the key themes that authors Ernesto Isunza Vera and Adrian Gurza Lavalle go on to discuss in the rest of the volume.

Democratic institution-building experiences, innovative forms of social organization, and the development of multiple state-society interfaces represent a significant political phenomenon in Latin America in the last half-century. By comparing the region’s two largest countries, Brazil and Mexico, Democratizing the State examines social accountability and social control regimes.

In his foreword, Fox argues that it provides conceptual foundations for analysts to address the next generation of challenges facing the democratization of the state. By unpacking the key elements of social control and social accountability regimes, analysts can identify both bottlenecks and opportunities for defending and deepening democracy more broadly. That involves identifying opportunities for synergy between participatory oversight, social accountability, and other adjacent democratic institutions.

Find an overview of the whole volume here.