The recent rise of social movements in Chile has been at the heart of public debates, and the subject of an ever growing scholarly production. A frequent explanation of this upsurge of social mobilisation is the institutional closure to citizen participation in the elaboration of public policy since the reinstatement of democracy in 1990. This diagnosis builds on a body of literature that characterises both the transition to democracy and the policy-making process in Chile by its elitist nature. To date, Delamaza's new book Enhancing Democracy: Public Policies and Citizen Participation in Chile offers the most comprehensive analysis of citizen participation, governance and public policies in Chile as part of the same social and political process. It is therefore a key reference both to analysts who seek to explain the current protest wave in the country as a consequence of the weak institutional channels for citizen participation, and to those who are interested in the general features of Chile's top-down governance model during the Concertación governments (1990–2010).

However, Enhancing Democracy goes beyond the mere portrayal of the relationship between civil society and the state since 1990. In the book's introduction and Chapter 1, Delamaza discusses the role of civil society and political actors in the construction of democratic governance. For this, the author engages with democratic theory and debates on governance. Revisiting the vast literatures on the transition to democracy and the quality of democracy in Latin America, Delamaza argues for the need to surpass the minimal concept of democracy that underpins the assessment of Chile's often admired transition and posterior political stability. A substantive concept of democracy that also includes the role of civil society in expanding and diversifying public space is defended. Based on this, a central argument of the book is that while public policy, especially in the social domain, has constituted the main instrument to enhance social inclusion, the policy-making process in the post-transition scenario has given insufficient access to non-governmental actors to public affairs. Thus, it has served in a limited way to boost democratic governance. Unpacking this argument, the book is organised around the following topics: (1) the diversity and degree of coordination of social policy agendas, (2) public policy networks and the influence of civil society through participation and (3) the constitution of a new political elite with former links to civil society.

Chapter 2 provides an overview of the historical background to Chile's institutional architecture and civil society, and discusses how political culture has shaped the nature of the policy-making process after the restoration of democracy. In chapter 3, it is then argued that social policies have served as a vehicle to secure governance, and to replace the links between civil society and the state that historically were provided by the political parties. Moreover, the chapter classifies different types of policy agendas according to their level of engagement with civil-society actors. This is especially clarifying to grasp how the Concertación governments have combined diverse principles in their attempt to address the needs of the most vulnerable groups in Chile. At the same time, this combination of principles also explains why the country has not made more progress in the establishment of a system of universal social rights. So, following the general premise of the book, that is, that public policies impact both the meanings and conditions of the practice of citizenship, Delamaza's study helps to understand why a more wide-ranging exercise of social citizenship has not materialised.

This analysis is complemented by the empirical examination of how civil-society actors have influenced public policy agendas in chapter 4. The concepts of public policy network (the institutionalised exchange system through which civil-society organisations relate to the state), and public spaces for local concertation allow for departure from the common depiction of Chile's civil society as disorganised and fragmented. These concepts also permit identifying existing variation in the influence of different actors. Part of the explanation is the structural weakness of civil society. At the same time, however, the initiatives for strengthening civil society and promoting citizen participation in public policy have been deficient due to their non-binding nature and the dearth of institutionalised spaces for this purpose. Hence, to break with the vicious circle between public policies and the failure to ‘open’ the state to promote an active and deliberating civil society remains one of the pending challenges to Chile's democracy.

Part of the reason why public policies have been unable to produce democratic governance is explained in chapter 5. A significant proportion of the Chilean political elite, Delamaza demonstrates, has transited between civil society and the state apparatus. As government officials, this elite has enjoyed a privileged position in the definition of public policies. The puzzle that the chapter sets out to explain is why the Concertación failed to reinforce democracy in its participatory dimension in spite of the origins in civil society of many of its members. Addressing this question, the author offers an empirical analysis of the career paths and joint cultural and social backgrounds of high-ranked officials of the centre-left coalition. The chapter shows that political parties mediated access to government positions. Yet, the close relationship between civil society and political actors did not translate into more influence on the public policy agenda. Furthermore, the chapter contends that the Chilean political elite very rarely returned to civil-society organisations to pursue their careers. Consequently, political activity became increasingly dominated by the specialist knowledge provided by technocrats. This feature further limited the democratising potential of Chile's civil society.

Overall, Delamaza's book shows the exhaustion of Chile's often lauded governance model. Furthermore, it makes clear that the challenge of political stability in the country is intrinsically related to how the relationship between the state and civil society evolves. If anything, Enhancing Democracy could offer a more systematic comparison of state-civil-society interaction and governance in other Latin American countries. Without a doubt, the topics covered in the book complement a bourgeoning literature on the role that both civil-society actors and political elites play in the deepening of democracy in Chile and elsewhere.