Social Policies, Mediation and Popular Participation in Guadalajara

Abstract

The main thesis developed here is that the absence of public arenas for the open expression of citizens leads to the appearance of the social figure of mediation. From this point of view, the social organizations studies in the case of Guadalajara appear as twofold vindications of the right to the city: 1) as agents of urban management, and 2) as political subjects that assume this role by speaking the demands of popular groups to government institutions.

The spaces of political mediation, through which the tasks of governance are carried out, are the bridge that links those who govern and those who are governed. Therefore, in their struggle to survive as political institutions, political parties seem to have no other option than adopting popular demands and struggles.