Local Governments, Citizenship and Democracy. The Cases in Huanta and Huamanga

The starting point of this work is, precisely, a reappraisal of the municipal elections established in 1963. In general, more emphasis has been placed on market expansion and, above all, on the organization of the peasantry, land seizures, the expansion of schooling, and large-scale migrations as factors of political democratization, which opened a new dynamic within the micro-geography of power. The intensification of municipal life that took place from then on is an important part of the intermittent, bumpy, and still incomplete advance toward citizenship. How can these claims be reconciled, first with the advance of Sendero Luminoso in the region and more recently with the majority adherence to an authoritarian regime such as the current one, which has abolished regional governments, has concentrated power as never before in the Executive Branch, and develops openly populist policies in the region? Research begun in ten municipalities of Ayacucho can help answer these questions. The work focuses on four districts of the province of Huamanga – Socos, Vinchos, Quinua, and Acocro – and six of the seven districts of Huanta: Iguaín, Luricocha, Huamanguilla, Santillana, Ayahuanco, and Huanta, the provincial capital.