Socio-Demographic Characteristics and Vote Choice in Latin America

• In Event: How do Latin Americans Vote?

Abstract

The very first individual-level studies of voting behavior gave particular attention to socio-demographic characteristics, like age, gender and religiosity, as determinants of vote choice. Following these original studies, socio-demographics have been relegated to a second-tier role in subsequent studies of vote choice although we know party systems (in some parts of the world more than others) have developed around important social cleavages. In recent decades, some of these determinants, most notably race, religion and gender, have received renewed attention, including in Latin America.
Voting behavior research in the United States, for example, noticed the emergence of a gender gap in the early 1980s as a product of important changes in sex roles. Women, as compared to men, tended to be more supportive of presidential Democratic candidates and expressed more liberal policy preferences. A similar phenomenon also appeared to be occurring in other established democracies like the UK and Australia. The role of race in shaping American elections and religion in organizing political parties in Europe are undeniable and there is growing evidence that these two determinants also matter to Latin Americans. To be sure, socio-demographic characteristics still exert strong and persistent effects on vote choice, at least in the developed world where these determinants of the vote have been examined more closely. Now, should we expect socio-demographics to also influence the vote choices of Latin Americans? This is the question this paper wishes to answer.

Author

• Mathieu Turgeon, Universidade de Brasilia