The New Polarization in Latin America and Its Implications for Democracy

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Latin American democracies, like those in other parts of the world (McCoy and Somer 2019), have been buffeted by rising levels of political and ideological polarization over the past two decades. Although polarization is hardly unknown in the region—it was integral to the wave of democratic breakdowns in the 1960s and 1970s (O’Donnell 1973; Valenzuela 1976)— new forms of polarization lie in sharp contrast to the1990s, when the so-called “Washington Consensus” for economic and political liberalism dominated across the region. This new polarization has yet to receive systematic scholarly attention, even though the conventional wisdom suggests that political moderation and ideological depolarization were vital to the consolidation of Latin America’s “third wave” democracies in the late 20th century (Mainwaring and Pérez-Liñán 2013).

Why, then, after a generation of political moderation or even convergence, have Latin American polities become so deeply divided or polarized once again? And, given the historical track record, what are the implications of this new polarization for democratic representation and the vitality and stability of democratic institutions? This panel brings together scholars from both the U.S. and Latin America to address these questions from a range of different perspectives. The papers employ diverse methodological toolkits to examine different types of data at both elite and mass levels of analysis, as well as the interaction between polarization dynamics at these different levels. The papers include a mix of country or case-based analyses (Mexico, Colombia, and Chile) and cross-national, region-wide assessments of polarization dynamics. At the mass level, they examine trend lines in public opinion and mass political identification, as well as relationships between ideology, partisanship, cultural identities, and anti-establishment or anti-institutional sentiments. They will also analyze social mobilization and protest dynamics and their impact on mass attitudes toward political institutions. At the elite level, they use data from Facebook and Twitter messages to examine populist discourse, misinformation, and issue framing; the diffusion of both polarizing and de-polarizing messages; and elite activation of polarized attitudes in the public at large. Taken together, these papers will shed new light on the multiple dimensions of polarization processes, the factors that encourage and potentially inhibit polarization, and the impact of polarization on democratic representation and contestation.
 

Sub Unit

• Division 12: Comparative Politics of Developing Countries

Individual Presentations

• Recent Trends in Ideological Polarization in Latin America - Paolo Moncagatta, Universidad San Francisco de Quito

• Misinformation, Populist Rhetoric, and Polarized Attitudes in Mexico - Rodolfo Sarsfield, Autonomous University of Queretaro; Zacarias Abuchanab, National University of Guillermo Brown

• Polarization in Colombia: The Impact of Depolarizing Twitter Messages - Laura Gamboa, University of Utah; Lisa Zanotti, Diego Portales University; Sandra Botero, Universidad del Rosario

• Anti-institutional Polarization in Institutionalized Chile - Juan Pablo Luna, Instituto de Ciencia Política, PUC-Chile

Chair

• Kenneth M. Roberts Cornell University

Discussants

• Jana Morgan University of Tennessee, Knoxville

• Robert R. Kaufman Rutgers University, New Brunswick