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Citizen–Auditors and Visible Subjects: Mi Familia Progresa and Transparency Politics in Guatemala
Author(s) -
Dotson Rachel
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
polar: political and legal anthropology review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.529
H-Index - 27
eISSN - 1555-2934
pISSN - 1081-6976
DOI - 10.1111/plar.12079
Subject(s) - transparency (behavior) , scrutiny , politics , citizenship , political science , public administration , audit , poverty , state (computer science) , accountability , active citizenship , social work , public relations , sociology , law , business , accounting , computer science , algorithm
This article analyzes the politics of transparency in Guatemala through the lens of Mi Familia Progresa , a state social program in the Guatemalan highlands that is based on the conditional cash transfer model of poverty alleviation, implemented between 2008 and 2012 under the administration of President Alvaro Colom. I argue that concepts of transparency and audit that permeate national‐level political discourse in Guatemala work to create dual classes of citizens: taxpayers who have the right and responsibility to audit social programs, and recipients of state benefits who are viewed as legitimate objects of public scrutiny. Through combined analysis of political discourse and ethnographic research on Mi Familia Progresa, this article provides a view into how the terms of these emerging forms of citizenship are negotiated and with what results for those Guatemalans who rely on Mi Familia Progresa to meet their day‐to‐day needs. This article concludes that efforts to make state social programs transparent, while often portrayed as empowering and democratic, actually work to reinforce long‐standing forms of exclusionary citizenship. At the same time, a dominant focus on transparency works to obscure critical questions related to the efficacy of state social programs in addressing issues of poverty and inequality.