This book sets out to answer what appears to be a deceptively simple question: how do poor and marginalized citizens engage the state in the global South? Drawing on twelve case studies from the global South, this book explore the politics of 'mediated citizenship' in which citizens are represented to the state through third party intermediaries who 'speak for' the people they represent. These intermediaries include political parties, non-governmental organisations, community-based organisations, social movements, armed non-state actors, networks or individuals. Collectively the cases show that mediation is both widely practiced and multi-directional in relations between states and key groups of citizens in the global South. Furthermore, they show how mediated forms of representation may have an important role to play in deepening democracy in the global South.

Bettina von Lieres is Lecturer of Development Studies in the Centre for Critical Development Studies at the University of Toronto Scarborough, Canada. She has written widely on democratisation and citizen mobilization in the global South. Her recent publications include Mobilising for Democracy: Citizen Action and the Politics of Public Participation (with Coelho).

Laurence Piper is Professor of Political Science at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. He research interests include the informal urban life in the global south, and the implications for citizenship and democracy.

Introduction: The Crucial Role of Mediators in Relations between States and Citizens; Laurence Piper and Bettina von Lieres
PART I: MEDIATING THE CITY
1. Mediation and the Contradictions of Representing the Urban Poor in South Africa: The Case of Sanco Leaders in Imizamo Yethu in Cape Town, South Africa
2. Citizen Power or State Weakness? The Enduring History of Collective Action in a Hyderabadi Bazaar; Shylashri shankar
3. The Politics of Mediation in Fragile Democracies: Building New Social Contracts Through, and for, Democratic Citizenship in Angola; Bettina von Lieres
4. 'Parallel Power' In Rio de Janeiro: Coercive Mediators and the Fragmentation of Citizenship in the Favela; Joanna wheeler
PART II: MEDIATING THE NATIONAL
5. Challenging the Gatekeepers: Disability Rights Advocacy and the Struggle for Self-Representation within Lebanon's Postwar Sectarian Democracy; Paul Kingston
6. Mediation in India's Policy Spaces; Deepta Chopra
7. Mediating Active Citizenship and Social Mobility in Working Class Schools: The Case of Equal Education in Khayelitsha, Cape Town; Brahm Fleisch and Steven Robins
8. Mobilising for Democracy: Civil Society Mediation and Access to Policy in India; Ranjita Moha
9. Mediation at the Grassroots: Claiming Rights by Empowering Citizens in Bangladesh; Lopita Huq and Simeen Mahmud
PART III: MEDIATING THE POST-NATIONAL
10: Mediation as Diplomacy: Dynamics of Governance and Representation in Brazilian Indigenous Societies; Alex Shankland
11. Achieving First Nation Self-Government In Yukon, Canada: The Mediating Role of the Council for Yukon Indians (cyi), 1975-1995*; Roberta Rice
12. Transnationalisation as Mediation: Uyghur's Rights-Based Mobilisation Outside China; Laura Trajber Waisbich