Bringing the citizen to the public arena: Social capital and empowerment in the social democractic construction process in Latin America

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to examine the role of social capital and empowerment on the social democratic construction processs in Latin America. We seek to evaluate the assimetric coexistence between formal poliarquical procedures, simultaneously with economic vulnerable societies as well as devitalized territories. We argue that social capital and empowerment function sinergically in the promotion of protagonic political citizens. The data utilized in this article come from a comparative survey conducted in three Latin American cities: Porto Alegre, Brazil; Montevideo, Uruguay and Santiago, Chile. The results indicate that before evaluating the existence or not of social capital, it becomes necessary to examine if there exists attitudinal pre dispositions to promote social capital, through emancipatory empowerment strategies. The data also suggest that latent pre-dispositions exist to create social capital in Latin America.