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Information and Values in Popular Protests: Costa Rica in 2000
Author(s) -
FRAJMAN EDUARDO
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
bulletin of latin american research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.24
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1470-9856
pISSN - 0261-3050
DOI - 10.1111/j.1470-9856.2008.00289.x
Subject(s) - government (linguistics) , politics , position (finance) , public policy , space (punctuation) , political science , point (geometry) , political economy , sociology , public relations , economic growth , economics , law , philosophy , linguistics , geometry , mathematics , finance
The mass demonstrations in Costa Rica in 2000 opposing a government initiative to deregulate the electricity and telecommunications markets point to the importance of the paths of communication between the people and government leaders to understand mass political mobilisation. This article explains the surprising reaction of the Costa Rican public by focusing on the unwillingness or inability of the policy‐makers to articulate their position in a way acceptable to the citizenry, leaving public space under the dominant influence of social organisations that opposed the initiative.