Twenty years after governments across Latin America began implementing neoliberal reforms in earnest, concern is growing about their impact on the quality of democracy in the region. This article examines this issue in the case of Mexico by exploring how patterns of political participation, especially among the rural and urban poor, have changed since the implementation of free market reforms. It asks whether the institutional innovations associated with free market reforms make it easier or more difficult for the poor to participate in Mexico's political process. The answer is not encouraging. Despite democratic openings, the new linkages between the state and citizens established as a result of the transition to a free market development model stifle the voice of the poor not through the threat of force or coercion, but by creating obstacles and disincentives for political mobilization that affect the poor more severely than other groups.

This research demonstrates how individual and group behavior is shaped by the opportunities and constraints created by strong and weak social network ties. The political behavior of two factions in Solidaridad, a squatter settlement outside Oaxaca, Mexico, diverged dramatically after the victory of the PAN in local elections. Some residents, usually newer arrivals who had not participated in the founding of the neighborhood, defected from the PRI and its neighborhood organization to establish an independent organization of their own. Once they did so, they became more active in community affairs, attending regular assemblies, participating in community improvement projects, volunteering to petition local and state governments for services, and voting—usually for a party other than the PRI. Residents who remained loyal to the PRI formed their own clique and isolated themselves from the new organization, refusing to attend assemblies and participate in the weekly community activities, and generally limiting their political activity to voting for the PRI in local and national elections. I account for this divergence in political activity by showing how an individual's location in strong versus weak networks can restrict or expand their choice of action by making information about new political opportunities more or less available to them.

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How do Latin America’s poorest citizens participate in politics? This article explores the role that community organizations play in mobilizing individuals into three common modes of political participation: voting, protesting, and contacting government. It argues that community organizations help mobilize poor individuals both through the resources they provide for mobilization and because they serve as sites where political parties target individuals for mobilization. It analyzes survey data from LAPOP surveys for 18 Latin American countries and finds that overall, poor people are just as politically active as more affluent individuals; that involvement in community organizations is a very strong predictor of all types of political participation; and that membership in organizations has an especially strong effect on voting and protesting for poor people. By equalizing levels of political participation across income groups, organizations help erase class-based inequalities in participation that have plagued democracies in the region.

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