The Power of Partnerships

When asked about the Argentine government’s relationship with CSOs, the president of a small foundation answered wryly, “If you don’t attend a meeting, they won’t miss you. They’re not going to call to see why you didn’t show up.” It does seem rather far-fetched to expect policy makers to “miss” a single organization absent from such a gathering. On the other hand, what occurs when groups join together? Are governing elites as likely to marginalize an entire network or coalition of CSOs as they are to ignore individual groups? The advantages of cooperation seemed obvious to many civil societal actors: “Either we unite, or we unite,” an NGO member concluded. It was a matter of increasing “resources, efficiency, and pressure,” she explained; “Why make similar demands separately from one another?” Trying to effect change single-handedly struck her (and other advocates) as unproductive. The activists interviewed for this project often bore in mind past experiences with resource constraints and political marginalization while weighing the costs and benefits of alliance building. In this chapter, I provide support for the claim that successful interorganizational cooperation increases the likelihood of civil society involvement in policy. As discussed in Chapter 1, alliances can help individual groups overcome the obstacles that tend to limit their political influence in Latin America: few resources, limited visibility, and high fragmentation. Through cooperation, CSO members can pool and mobilize resources, solve coordination problems, achieve strength in numbers to back their collective demands, and present a united front vis-à-vis governing elites and other actors. The benefits of alliances are evident during the formulation, agenda-setting, and adoption phases of policy making. Efficacious partnerships therefore represent a second important pathway to participation. Moreover, certain characteristics enhance the effectiveness of alliances. These include ties to other alliances or political movements, a good