THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF PARTICIPATION IN COTACACHI BEFORE AND DURING THE CONSTITUTION OF 2008

Abstract

This paper analyzes the appropriation of the participatory process of Cotacachi by the local actors who implemented a civil government of participation in the canton and how they revalidated their legitimacy in the face of the institutionalization determined by the 2008 Constitution. This paper provides elements for the understanding and discussion of the current moment of participation, in addition to making visible the possibilities for political action in the spaces for participation. This article aims to describe the process of building a participatory civil government in Cotacachi, by the canton's social actors, before and during the 2008 Constitution. In methodological terms, it was carried out a documentary and bibliographic review that descriptively and chronologically analyzes the development of political and participatory capacities of the social actors with which they faced constitutional changes, maintaining the autonomy and original structure of their participatory process, thus achieving their legal recognition as a cantonal participation system. The result points out to the civil government of participation as an effect of the historical process of struggle and social organization, through which social actors accumulated skills, knowledge, experience, and political resources that made them non-state authority for participation.