Poverty and Governance: Challenges for Democratizing Urban Management in El Salvador in the Nineties

Abstract

This article presents some reflections on the relations between poverty and urban governance. The element that articulates these two aspects of Latin American social life, and one of the main motives of both government and citizen actions, is urban management.

Urban management is seen as a form of local political action within a global political system, and as an exercise of power not limited to State institutions, but extended to several spheres of civil society. The author claims, contrary to a widespread opinion, that building democratic governance does not depend solely on popular participation, and that this participation, under some circumstances, can even become an obstacle.