Latin America's diversity of views

Journal of Democracy

Volumn 19, Issue 1, 2008, Pages 111-125

  Lagos, Marta ^a,b  

^a MORI Chile   (Chile)

^b Latinobarómetro ^*

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 39349104311     PISSN: 10455736     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (21)

1. The Latinobarómetro was launched in 1995 and its findings were first reported in the Journal of Democracy in 1997;
2. see Marta Lagos, "Public Opinion in New Democracies: Latin America's Smiling Mask," Journal of Democracy 8 (July 1997): 125-38.
3. AU results are calculated on the basis of ten years of data from 176,000 interviews in eighteen countries. Data mentioned without full reporting have been published in the Latinobarómetro reports from 1995 to 2006, available at www.latinobarometro.org.
4. Averages in comparative public-opinion analyses are not weighted by the population size of countries. For a detailed depiction of these two items, see Figures 1 and 2 at www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/gratis/LagosGraphics- 19-1.pdf.
5. The analysis here is confined to the single measure of support for democracy, an indicator with three alternatives: 1) "Democracy is preferable to any other form of government"; 2) "Sometimes an authoritarian government can be preferable"; or 3) "Indifference to the type of regime." However, the findings are similar if another measure of democratic support is employed-for example, an index composed of a selected number of variables.
6. People were identified as being "left," "center," or "right" based on their response to the following question: "On a scale from 0 to 10, with 0 being the extreme left and 10 the extreme right, where do you place yourself? Left: 0-3; center: 4-6; and right: 7-10."
7. The survey was taken in October 2006, after ten elections had taken place; only the Venezuelan election took place afterward.
8. Carlos Huneeus and Luis Maldonado, "Demócratas y nostálgicos del antiguo régimen. Los apoyos a la democracia en Chile," Revista Española de Investigaciones Socioló gicas (Madrid) 103 (July-September 2003): 9-49.
9. In 2007, however, there was an increase in support for an authoritarian regime as a consequence of significant reforms on the government's agenda, which have created a polarized political climate.
10. MORI survey on political leadership, 22 July 2007.
11. The open-ended question is "What does 'democracy' mean to you?" The closed question is "People often differ in their views on the characteristics that are important for a democracy. If you have to choose only one of the characteristics on this list, which one would you choose as most essential to a democracy? Civil liberties that ensure the right to criticize openly; a competitive party system; an economic system that ensures a fair income; a justice system that treats everybody equally; respect for minorities; government of the majority; or parliament members who represent their voters."
12. Russell J. Dalton, Doh C. Shin, and Willy Jou, "Understanding Democracy: Data From Unlikely Places," Journal of Democracy 18 (October 2007): 142-56.
13. For a good example of such an approach, see Seymour Martin Lipset and William Schneider, The Confidence Gap: Business, Labor, and Government in the Public Mind, rev. ed. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987).
14. Only in Uruguay (41) and Chile (48) was the average percentage of public employees perceived to be corrupt below 50 percent, and not in a single Latin American country did a majority of the public perceive progress in the last two years in fighting corruption. Both figures are from the 2005 Latinobarómetro report.
15. Those with a favorable view of privatization increased from 22 percent in 2003 to 35 percent in 2007.
16. This figure of 47 percent was down from 63 percent in 2006.
17. This was the percentage in 2005 who said that their total family income was "not sufficient" to cover their needs, and that "we have major problems." The figure was down from 62 percent in 2003 but nevertheless higher than the range of 46 to 53 percent during the period 1996 to 2001. See the Table "Subjective Income, 1996-2005," at www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/gratis/LagosGraphics-19-1.pdf..
18. See Lagos, "Latin America's Smiling Mask."
19. Latinobarómetro report, 2003.
20. In other words, democratic institutions depend on each other for their respective levels of trust. See the Table "Factor Analysis: Trust in Institutions" at www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/gratis/ LagosGraphics-19-1 .pdf..
21. After independence, Mexican peasants saying referred to the change of power from one oligarchy (Spaniards) to another (whites), by saying "It is just another priest on a different mule."