Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T07:01:31.040Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Economic Shocks and Democratic Vulnerabilities in Latin America and the Caribbean

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Abby Córdova  and
Mitchell A. Seligson
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Historical evidence suggests that bad economic times often mean bad times for democracy, but prior research has given us little guidance on how this process may work. What economic conditions are most threatening, and how might they weaken consolidating democracies? This article uses the AmericasBarometer conducted by the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) to answer these questions by focusing on core attitudes for the consolidation of democracy. We use survey data at the level of the individual and economic data at the country level to help detect democratic vulnerabilities in Latin America and the Caribbean. The study finds that conditions of low levels of economic development, low economic growth, and high levels of income inequality increase those vulnerabilities substantially, but the effects are not uniform across individuals. Some groups, especially the young and the poor, are particularly vulnerable to some antidemocratic appeals.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 52 , Issue 2 , Summer 2010 , pp. 1 - 35
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bermeo, Nancy. 1999. Getting Mad or Going Mad: Citizen, Scarcity, and the Breakdown of Democracy in Interwar Europe. Irvine : Center for the Study of Democracy, University of California. http://escholarship.org/uc/item/8xf4t3t0.Google Scholar
Bermeo, Nancy. 2003. Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times: The Citizenry and the Breakdown of Democracy. Princeton : Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Booth, John A., and Seligson, Mitchell A.. 2009. The Legitimacy Puzzle in Latin America: Democracy and Political Support in Eight Nations. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bratton, Michael, Mattes, Robert, and Gyimah-Boadi, E.. 2005. Public Opinion, Democracy, and Market Reform in Africa. New York : Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Clarke, Harold D., Dutt, Nitish, and Kornberg, Allan. 1993. The Political Economy of Attitudes toward Politics and Society in Western European Democracies. Journal of Politics 55, 4: 998–1021.Google Scholar
Converse, Nathan, and Kapstein, Ethan B.. 2006. The Economics of Young Democracies: Policies and Performance. Working Paper 84. Washington , DC : Center for Global Development.Google Scholar
Coppedge, Michael, Alvarez, Angel, and Maldonado, Claudio. 2008. Two Persistent Dimensions of Democracy: Contestation and Inclusiveness. Journal of Politics 70, 3: 632–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Córdova, Abby B. 2009. Methodological Note: Measuring Relative Wealth Using Household Asset Indicators. AmericasBarometer Insights series. http://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/studiesandpublications.Google Scholar
Cunningham, Wendy V., et al. 2008. Youth at Risk in Latin America and the Caribbean: Understanding the Causes, Realizing the Potential. Directions in Development series. Washington , DC : World Bank.Google Scholar
Dalton, Russell J. 2004. Democratic Challenges, Democratic Choices: The Erosion of Political Support in Advanced Industrial Democracies. Oxford : Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Diamond, Larry. 2008. The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World. New York : St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Easton, David. 1975. A Re-Assessment of the Concept of Political Support. British Journal of Political Science 5: 435–57.Google Scholar
Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). 2008. Social Panorama of Latin America. http://www.eclac.org. Accessed November 19, 2009.Google Scholar
Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). 2009a. Balance preliminar de las economías de América Latina y el Caribe. http://www.eclac.org/cgibin/getProd.asp?xml=/publicaciones/xml/2/38062/P38062.xml&xsl=/de/tpl/p9f.xsl&base=/tpl/top-bottom.xslt. Accessed November 19, 2009.Google Scholar
Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). 2009b. Panorama social para América Latina. http://www.eclac.org/cgi-bin/getProd.asp?xml=/publicaciones/xml/9/37839/P37839.xml&xsl=/dds/tpl/p9f.xsl&base=/tpl/top-bottom.xslt. Accessed November 19, 2009.Google Scholar
Franzese, Robert J. Jr. 2005. Empirical Strategies for Various Manifestations of Multilevel Data. Political Analysis 13, 4: 430–46.Google Scholar
Gourevitch, Peter Alexis. 1986. Politics in Hard Times: Comparative Responses to International Economic Crises. Ithaca : Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Haggard, Stephan, and Kaufman, Robert R.. 1995. The Political Economy of Democratic Transitions. Princeton : Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Heston, Alan, Summers, Robert. and Aten, Bettina. 2006. Penn World Tables Version 6.2. Philadelphia : Center for International Comparisons of Production, Income, and Prices, University of Pennsylvania. September.Google Scholar
Inglehart, Ronald, and Welzel, Christian. 2005. Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy. New York : Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kapstein, Ethan B., and Converse, Nathan. 2008. The Fate of Young Democracies. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krishna, Anirudh. 2008. Poverty, Participation, and Democracy: A Global Perspective. New York : Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Krugman, Paul R. 2009. The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008. New York : W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Lewis-Beck, Michael S., and Stegmaier, Mary. 2007. Economic Models of the Vote. In The Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior, ed. Dalton, Russell J. and Klingemann, Hans-Dieter. Oxford : Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lewis-Beck, Michael S., and Nadeau, Richard. 2009. Obama and the Economy in 2008. PS: Political Science and Politics 43, 3: 479–83.Google Scholar
Lipset, Seymour Martin. 1981 [1961]. Political Man: The Social Bases of Politics. Expanded edition. Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Mainwaring, Scott, and Pérez-Liñán, Aníbal. 2007. Latin American Democratization Since 1978: Regime Transitions, Breakdowns, and Erosions. In The Third Wave of Democratization in Latin America: Advances and Setbacks, ed. Hagopian, Frances and Mainwaring, . Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. 14–59.Google Scholar
Nun, José. 1967. The Middle-Class Military Coup. In The Politics of Conformity in Latin America, ed. Véliz, Claudio. New York : Oxford University Press. 66–118.Google Scholar
Przeworski, Adam. 2009. The Mechanics of Regime Instability in Latin America. Journal of Politics in Latin America 1, 1: 5–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Przeworski, Adam, Alvarez, Michael, Antonio Cheibub, José, and Limongi, Fernando. 1996. What Makes Democracies Endure? Journal of Democracy 7, 1: 39–55.Google Scholar
Przeworski, Adam, Alvarez, Michael, Antonio Cheibub, José, and Limongi, Fernando. 2000. Democracy and Development: Political Institutions and Well-Being in the World, 1950–1990. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Puddington, Arch. 2009. Freedom in the World 2009: Setbacks and Resilence. http://www.freedomhouse.org/uploads/fiw09/FIW09_OverviewEssay_Final.pdf. Accessed March 3, 2009.Google Scholar
Raudenbush, Stephen W., and Bryk, Anthony S.. 2002. Hierarchical Linear Models: Applications and Data Analysis Methods. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks : Sage.Google Scholar
Seligson, Mitchell A., ed. 2008. Challenges to Democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean: Evidence from the AmericasBarometer 2006–7. Nashville : Latin American Public Opinion Project.Google Scholar
Socio-Economic Database for Latin America and the Caribbean (SEDLAC). Various years. Developed by the World Bank and the Centro de Estudios Distributivos y Laborales, Universidad de la Plata. http://www.depeco.econo.unlp.edu.ar/sedlac/eng/statistics-detalle.php?idE=35. Accessed March 3, 2009.Google Scholar
United Nations Development Program (UNDP). 2008. Human Development Report 2007–2008. New York : Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Weede, Erich. 1996. Political Regime Type and Variation in Economic Growth Rates. Constitutional Political Economy 7, 3: 167–76.Google Scholar
West, Brady, Welch, Kathleen B., and Galecki, Andrzej T.. 2007. Linear Mixed Models: A Practical Guide Using Statistical Software. Boca Raton : Chapman and Hall/CRC.Google Scholar
World Bank. 2009. Protecting Progress: the Challenge Facing Low-Income Countries in the Global Recession. Background paper prepared by the World Bank staff for the G-20 Leaders' Meeting. Pittsburgh, September 24–25.Google Scholar