University of Illinois PhD candidate, Christopher A. Valencia, with guidance from Dr. Alejandro Lugo, will undertake research on the role of grass-roots political participation in processes of state formation and in creating and maintaining democracy. This key research questions concern: 1) how the state and democracy are understood and experienced from the vantage point of grass-roots organizations and their participants; 2) if race, class, and gender inequalities affect participation in grass-roots organizations and thus state formation and establishing democracy; and, 3) what kinds of social relations link grass-roots organizations and their participants to the state.
The research will be conducted in Venezuela, which, after a decade of radical political change, is a useful case study of these more general processes. Through fieldwork methods such as participant-observation and structured and semi-structured interviews, Valencia will conduct ethnographic research in two southwest Caracas parishes and surrounding settlements. Special attention will be paid to the perspectives of participants in social, political, economic, and cultural organizations that identify with post-1998 politcal movements. Additional attention will be given to the interactions and differentiated relationships between government supporters, local and regional government officials, and opposition groups. Finally, local and regional government officials and opposition groups will be interviewed regarding their interpretations of the new government policies and their own political practices.
This research contributes theoretically and empirically to understandings of the relationship between the state, social movements, and democracy. It responds to appeals made within the social sciences to broaden understandings of political participation through the observation of both bottom-up and top-down processes of state formation and in establishing democracy.
