Abstract
Municipal government and popular participation in Latin America examines the different ways in which organizations formed by low-income groups interact with municipal government in seeking to meet their collective consumption needs (for instance water supply, sanitation, garbage collection) within the context of the structural crisis. The paper describes the contrasting strategies adopted by different income groups in response to the failure of local government to provide for these needs and discusses the different forms of relationship between popular sectors and municipal authorities. It also considers how and under what conditions the mobilization of popular sectors has allowed them to obtain more power in decision making at the municipal level.