The Political Competence of Colombians and Mexicans at Home and Abroad

• In Event: Estado y ciudadania: entre las politicas y la participacion

Abstract

In recent decades, a number of democracies in the developing world have extended absentee voting rights to expatriates. Relatively little is known about the quality of transnational political engagement. How attentive are expatriates to politics in the sending country? When judging leaders and candidates "back home," are expatriates' evaluations at odds with those of voters in the sending country? Drawing from original surveys conducted during presidential elections in Colombia (2010) and Mexico (2006), where both expatriates and voters within the country were sampled, we address these questions. We find that for each nationality group, living abroad is not associated with a drop in political attentiveness. Moreover, expatriates and voters in the sending country do not vary in the extent to which ideological preferences are used to judge leaders, which is a key marker of political sophistication. These results suggest that in the context of Colombian and Mexican politics, living abroad does not markedly diminish electoral competence.

Authors

• James A McCann, Purdue University

• Renelinda Arana

• Cristina Escobar, Temple University