Why do some protest movements in Latin America succeed in rolling back privatizations
while others fail? This article argues that protests against privatizations
have tended to succeed under two conditions. First, privatization’s opponents
form linkages (or “brokerage”) across multiple sectors of society. Broad
coalitions are more likely to achieve their goals, while groups acting alone, such
as labor unions, are more easily defeated or ignored by governments. Second,
civil rights are protected but political representation is weak. In that case, opponents
have the legal right to protest, but are unlikely to have opportunities for
communicating their concerns through formal institutions, which prompts
them to channel their demands outside of existing political institutions. Using
case examples and logistic regression, this study confirms these arguments and
discusses the implications for democracy in the region.