The State in Society: Conceptualizing Collective Action and Popular Participation in Latin America

Abstract

Over the past several decades, scholars have produced a voluminous amount of research addressing the issue of collective action on the part of subaltern groups in Latin America and other regions across the globe. Significant diversity in research agendas and theoretical and methodologi-cal approaches continue to exist among those engaging in such research. Yet, increasingly, consensus has emerged over the dynamic interrelationship between the state and civil society in shaping the propensity and capacity for political participation and collective action, particularly among historically excluded segments of the population (McAdam, Tarrow, and Tilly 1997). Historical events and empirical research have steadily eroded the plausibility of theories and conceptual frameworks that posit some sort of rigid dichotomy between state and society, modern and traditional social sectors, or capitalist and precapitalist economic sectors.