The right to decide: a triad of participation in politicizing extractive governance in Latin America

Abstract

This article introduces a triad of participation as an explanatory framework that places more emphasis on the distinction between participation, decision-making and consent in politicizing extractive governance in three Latin American countries. To explore this issue, we consider the institutional mechanisms of participation from above expressed in the legislation of Mexico, Ecuador and Peru, as well as diverse experiences of community resistance against extractive projects in the same countries. Our analysis illustrates that state decision-making and stewardship over strategic and non-renewable natural resources remains unchallenged although participatory mechanisms are assumed as instruments for affected communities to shape decision-making over extractive projects. Our findings also indicate that large mobilizations, legal actions, calls for binding consultation, and forms of blockades are used to successfully shape decision-making. Whilst these actions from below obtain certain achievements, they are only temporarily successful as long-term decisions surrounding extractive governance and underlying structural inequalities remain unaffected. Though actors resisting extractive projects are possibly aware of this limited effect in the short-term, we suggest that their mobilization could create a path for questioning political participation outside the existing structural constraints for questioning established social orders and building emancipatory tools.