Attitude Variability Among Latin American Publics

• Author: Marco R. Steenbergen,Imke Harbers,Catherine E. de Vries
• Published date: 01 August 2013
• Date: 01 August 2013
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0010414012454409
• Subject Matter: Articles

Comparative Political Studies

46(8) 947 –967

© The Author(s) 2012

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DOI: 10.1177/0010414012454409

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454409CPS46810.1177/0010414012454409

Comparative Political StudiesHarbers et al.

© The Author(s) 2012

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1University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands

2University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

3University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

Corresponding Author:

Imke Harbers, University of Amsterdam, Political Science, Oudezijds Achterburgwal 237, 1012

DL Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Email: i.harbers@uva.nl

Attitude Variability

Among Latin American

Publics: How Party

System Structuration

Affects Left/Right Ideology

Imke Harbers1, Catherine E. de Vries2, and

Marco R. Steenbergen3

Abstract

Political scientists often describe party competition, political behavior or

public preferences in left/right terms. Nevertheless, the usefulness of the

concepts “left” or “right” is rarely explored. This study assesses whether

the left/right continuum resonates with publics in developing Latin American

democracies. Using data from the 2008 wave of the Latin American Public

Opinion Project (LAPOP), the authors measure variability in left/right self-

placement in three Latin American countries, namely, Ecuador, Mexico, and

Chile. Building on the approach developed by Alvarez and Brehm for public

opinion in the United States, the authors explore (a) the extent to which

voters in Ecuador, Mexico, and Chile possess predicable left/right positions

and (b) whether predictability can be attributed to individual- and country-

level characteristics. At the individual level, the authors show that variability

decreases with political sophistication. At the country level, they find that a

lower degree of programmatic party system structuration leads to higher

levels of response variation. Mapping the variability in left/right preferences

Article

948 Comparative Political Studies 46(8)

provides important insights into the structure of public opinion and con-

tours of political behavior in Latin America and how they differ from those

of other regions such as North America. In addition, this study brings to bear

important new individual-level insights into recent political developments in

the Latin American region, especially the so-called left turn in Latin American

politics.

Keywords

Latin America, left/right ideology, public opinion, response variation, party

system structuration

Political positions and preferences are often expressed in left/right terms.

Although left/right semantics have been found to provide significant leverage

in the study of politics in Western Europe, the usefulness of these concepts in

the developing democracies of Latin America remains highly contentious.

Many observers have pointed out that one key characteristic of democracies

in Latin America is the relative weakness of the left/right dimension as a

functional homogenizing cleavage (e.g., Dix, 1989; Roberts, 2002), whereas

other mechanisms—such as clientelism, patronage, and personalized poli-

tics—play a much more important role in linking voters to parties (e.g., Lev-

itsky, 2003). Yet despite the widespread skepticism about the usefulness of

left/right labels in the region, the terms continue to be used frequently not

only by academics but also by commentators and political elites. This para-

dox has recently become evident in the debate about Latin America’s “left

turn,” which has brought to power a series of governments, whose policy

preferences are considered to be leftist. The election of these governments

has led to a discussion about the underlying causes of this regionwide trend.

Have electorates shifted massively to the left? How stable and durable will

this shift be? We aim to contribute to the discussion through an analysis of the

strength of attitudes underlying left/right self-placement in the electorate.

Building on the approach developed by Alvarez and Brehm (1995, 1998,

2002) for public opinion in the United States, this study seeks to make two

contributions. First, we explore whether the left/right dimension resonates with

Latin American citizens. More specifically, we analyze the extent to which vot-

ers in Ecuador, Mexico, and Chile possess predictable left/right positions.

Discussions about shifts to the left of mass publics are useful only to the degree

that survey responses reflect stable dispositions. This is captured by our notion

of response variability. Second, we examine how personal predispositions and

characteristics of the political environment influence variability in left/right