Abstract

In Chile, community organizations have played a key role in contributing to social change, with fluctuating dynamics of progress and setbacks. However, these organizations have been relegated to a secondary role in the analysis of changes taking place in contemporary Chilean society. Considering their centrality in social life, this study sought to understand how the conditions for participation in community organizations in post-dictatorial Chile are being shaped normatively. Through a review of the history of Law 19.418 and an analysis of the arguments presented during the parliamentary debate, four major analytical axes were constructed: (1) participation as a guarantee of democracy, (2) instrumental participation, (3) ‘free and diverse’ participation, and (4) innocuous participation. In this way, the regulatory framework modulates conditions for limited and empty participation, constrained in its repertoires of action and capacity for social and political interference. It concludes that regulatory frameworks limit the action of organizations by promoting certain modes of operation typical of a neoliberal society. The overflow of regulatory frameworks is problematized to understand the work of community organizations and their possibilities for agency.