Barry Cannon is a lecturer in the sociology department of Maynooth University. His books include Hugo Chávez and the Bolivarian Revolution: Populism and Democracy in a Globalised Age (2009).Peadar Kirby is professor emeritus of international politics and public policy and former director of the Institute for the Study of Knowledge in Society (ISKS) at the University of Limerick, Ireland. Recent single-authored books include Vulnerability and Violence: The Impact of Globalisation (2006), and Introduction to Latin America: Twenty-first Century Challenges (2003).

Does the new left deliver the promise of participatory democracy, citizenship and inclusion? Or are we witnessing a new democratic deficit? Cannon and Kirby address this question through insightful studies of state-society relations and dynamics of policy-making in Latin America. This is a provocative contribution to Latin American studies with important implications for how we theorize democracy and democratization in an era of change.

• Introduction1. Globalization, democratization and state-civil society relations. challenges for left-led Latin America - Peadar Kirby and Barry CannonPart 1: State-civil society relations: case studies2. Reconfiguring the state/society complex in Venezuela - Thomas Muhr3. State-civil society relations in post-crisis Argentina - Christopher Wylde4. Civil society-state relations in left-led El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua - Barry Cannon and Mo Hume5. Rafael Correa's government, social movements and civil society in Ecuador - Carlos de la Torre6. Re-evaluating participatory governance in Brazil - Bernhard Leubolt, Wagner Romão, Joachim Becker and Andreas Novy7. State-civil society relations during student mobilizations in Chile in 2006 and 2011 - René Jara ReyesPart 2: Localized conflicts in a globalized age: extractivism, social policy and participation in left-led states8. The return of the state and new extractivism. what about civil society? - Barbara Hogenboom9. Indigenous and peasant participation in resource governance in Bolivia and Peru - Almut Schilling-Vacaflor and David Vollrath10. Chile's mining unions and the 'new left', 1990-2010 - Jewellord T. Nem SinghPart 3: The global, the national and the local: broadening participation?11. Civil society participation. poverty reduction in Bolivia, Honduras and Nicaragua - Sarah Hunt12. New left governments, civil society and constructing a social dimension in Mercosur - José Briceño RuizConclusion13. Civil society-state relations in left-led Latin America. deepening democratization? - Barry Cannon and Peadar Kirby