After fifteen years of democratization, residents of Rio's favelas (shantytowns) suffer high levels of civil and human rights abuse at the hands of both police and drug traffickers. The government is generally not able to guarantee the political order to protect the rights of residents of these communities. Existing theories of democratization and advocacy networks offer little to explain how the types of endemic violence that affect poor neighborhoods in the developing world can be brought under control. Based on over two years of participant observation and interviews in Rio de Janeiro, this project examines how democratic order can be extended to favelas and human rights more effectively guaranteed in similar communities in other cities and countries. I argue that Local Associative Networks [LANs] are able to link community residents to organizations in civil society and state actors play a critical role in reducing violence and establishing democratic order. Favelas that possess a diverse set of social organizations have an easier time interacting with the state and civil society than communities that lack such institutions. The links between the community and the outside are fundamental in helping residents bring in needed resources, controlling abuses on the part of state officials who work in the community, and establishing order. This project details the types of micro-level institutions necessary to consolidate democracy and guarantee human rights on the local level. Further, this project looks at the structure of domestic political networks and the role they play in the governance of post-authoritarian societies.