What Hope can Democracy bring to S&T Policy Making in Latin America?

The relationship between insulated state agencies and central actors in the production, adaptation and application of knowledge did not generate realistic policy goals nor stimulate collaboration in authoritarian Latin America. Because the agencies were deficient in social 'embeddedness' and had been 'captured' by corporate interests, S&T policy making expressed neither autonomy nor state strength and was more an impediment than an asset for efficient intervention. Competitive democracy and the development of institutionalized channels of communication between state and society signals the prospect for policies to increase social adherence and induce collaboration which should result in less state-centric S&T policies. Electoral cycles may represent a danger to policies of longer periods of maturation, but democratization in Latin America gives hope that political parties and the electorate will eventually mature and be sensitive to measures with less immediate results