Social Protest and Democratic Responsiveness: Assessing Realities in Latin America and the Caribbean and the European Union

The European Union - Latin America and the Caribbean Foundation (EU-LAC Foundation) was created as a result and initiative of the VI Summit of Heads of State and Government in May 2010 and formally began operating in November 2011.

With its headquarters in the city of Hamburg, Germany, the Foundation now consists of 33 member states from Latin America and the Caribbean, 28 member states from the European Union as well as a representative of the European Union as a whole. A total of 62 members.

The aim of the Foundation is to transform and adapt the strategic partnership between the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean -adopted in 1999 - into a strengthened and visible reality where the respective societies in both these regions can actively participate.Abstract:
This publication has emerged out of the Workshop “Social Protest and Democratic Responsiveness: Assessing Realities in Latin America & the Caribbean and the European Union”, organised by the EU-LAC Foundation and GIGA German Institute for Global and Area Studies on 10 October 2014 in the city of Hamburg, Germany. The Workshop brought together experts from both the European Union (EU) and Latin America & the Caribbean (LAC) who have worked on different forms of social protest in both regions with the goal of assessing similarities and differences as well as the potential for joint learning from each other’s experiences. The scholars debated the causes for the recent waves of protests and explored the implications of these protests amidst changing social, economic and political landscapes on both sides of the Atlantic. In addition, they analysed the responses of democratic regimes to these phenomena in both regions.