Abstract
Citizen participation in policy-making has been touted as the cornerstone of every democratic regime. Encouraging society members to participate in political life allows for a more meaningful, inclusive approach to policy agenda setting, design and implementation. As a result, innovative processes that encourage citizen input in policy-making also have the potential to provide solid foundations to a vigorous, strong democracy. Despite this need for citizen participation, it should also be acknowledged that, for society at large, it is almost impossible to participate in every forum of the environmental policymaking arena. As a result, the number and variety of environmental nongovernmental organizations (ENGOs) has increased almost exponentially in the last few years. ENGOs take upon themselves the role of representing the interests of the people (thus encouraging ‘democracy by proxy’). This paper traces ENGO involvement in effecting policy change in Mexico by documenting instances where their influence proved to be effective. I also outline the different strategies used by these ENGOs, with a strong focus on NGO coalition-building and network formation. Building on an interdisciplinary theoretical framework, I analyse empirical evidence of environmental policy change and then I trace the extent to which this change can be attributed to ENGO influence. Theoretical and empirical implications of my research are also discussed.
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Pacheco-Vega, R. (2005). Democracy By Proxy. In: Romero, A., West, S.E. (eds) Environmental Issues in Latin America and the Caribbean. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3774-0_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3774-0_10
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