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Participatory democracy has been studied as an auxiliary to state processes and as an institutional and cultural part of social movements. Studies of the use of participatory democracy by the Zapatistas of Mexico and the Movimento Sem Terra (Landless Movement—MST) of Brazil show a shared concern with autonomy, in particular avoidance of demobilization through the clientelism and paternalism induced by government programs and political parties. Both movements stress training in democracy (the experience of “being government”) and the obligation to participate. Detailed examination of their governance practices may be helpful to communities building democratic movements in other places. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Peter Rosset, Maríia Elena Martíez-Torres and Luis Hernández-Navarro argue that the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas proved to be a key turning point and re-awakening for the global Left, or perhaps more accurately, the figurative birth of the movement that replaced the 'old Left.' The Zapatistas gave the new movements new forms and more inclusive methods and ideologies of struggle. These were the forms, methods and ideologies with roots in the history of subaltern indigenous communities deep in the Lacandóon jungle of Southeastern Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]