We now focus our attention at the barrio level and examine the structure of the community organizations that have emerged to defend and develop settlement interests. The need for brevity obliges us to concentrate our analysis around two key issues. First, how much impact does community mobilization have upon the upgrading process? What is the extent of resident participation and how far does participation significantly affect the likelihood of servicing? Second, what governs the response that the state makes to community-development issues? Here our concern is to identify the motives of the state and to account for the way in which it handles community issues. Is the state basically sympathetic, attempting to help the poor as much as it can with limited resources, or is it concerned with maximizing social control by containing demand making to acceptable (and probably low) levels? Our aim is to understand the forms and levels of community participation relating them to the structural characteristics of each city and society.

Few observers doubt the potential value of community participation in development although many question its practice in Latin America. Such a paradox has become increasingly obvious through time. A major gulf exists between reality and the way in which community action and participation should operate. Such a statement is true whatever the political stance of the observer. That right and left might agree about the state of community participation is at first sight surprising.