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The article discusses the concepts of democracy and political participation through different perspectives aimed at pointing out the limitations as well as the contributions of some of those concepts for the analysis of Latin-American democracies. In the first section the article analyses democratic transition and democratization literature pointing out the deficiencies of the concept of democracy present in this literature when it comes to the approach of historical Latin American political process and more recent phenomenon of social mobilization in various countries. The second section discusses the participatory democracy literature and contrasts it with a minimalist conception of democracy. We argue that working under this perspective might lead to incomplete and superficial analysis of the Latin American democratization process.

O artigo discute os conceitos de democracia e de participação política a partir de diferentes perspectivas, com vistas a assinalar tanto as limitações como as contribuições de alguns destes conceitos para a análise das democracias latino-americanas. Primeiramente o artigo analisa a literatura sobre transição democrática e democratização e aponta as deficiências do conceito de democracia presente nesta literatura, no que tange à análise de processos históricos da América Latina e de processos mais recentes de mobilização social em vários países. Na segunda sessão, o trabalho discute a literatura de democracia participativa contrastando-a com as perspectivas minimalistas de democracia. Argumenta-se que os trabalhos a partir destas perspectivas podem levar a análises incompletas e superficiais do processo de construção democrática na América Latina.

For over a decade, the use of consumer decision seeking the accomplishment of political or ethical goals has been extensively debated by international social sciences. Confronting social capital decline and political demobilization theories, the acknowledgement of political consumerism as a novel and rising mode of non-conventional individual participation in politics has helped to redefine the terms of discussion on civic engagement while also bridging the gap between citizenship and the traditional public sphere of politics, on one side, and consumption and the private sphere of market agents, on the other. Yet, such debate has hardly begun for Latin America, not to speak of pursuing an empirical discussion. This article reviews empirical evidence about the politicization of the relationships between consumers and business substantiated upon the adoption of politically motivated purchases or boycotts of brands and products based on social and environmental values or policy preferences. Research is grounded on representative sample surveys conducted in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Results indicate that political consumerism is a fairly stable phenomenon and it enlarges (rather than redefines) the repertoires of political action in Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]