Campaigns and Voters in Developing Democracies: Argentina in Comparative Perspective

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Abstract

Most of what we know about voting behavior is informed by the experience of advanced democracies, yet the electoral context in developing democracies is significantly different. Civil society is often weak, poverty and inequality high, political parties ephemeral and attachments to them weak, corruption rampant, and clientelism more common. We cannot hope to understand how politics in these democracies unfolds if we assume what we know about voters in advanced democracies applies universally. Campaigns and Voters in Developing Democracies develops a unified theoretical framework to understand how and why voter behavior differs across contexts. It argues that voting decisions in developing democracies do follow similar logics to those in advanced democracies in that voters base their choices on a combination of group affiliation, issue positions, valence considerations, and campaign persuasion. Yet developing democracies differ in the relative weight citizens assign to these considerations. Where few social identity groups are politically salient and partisan attachments are sparse, voters may place more weight on issue voting. Where issues are largely absent from political discourse, valence considerations and campaign effects play a larger role. Campaigns and Voters in Developing Democracies is composed of several chapters in which students of Latin American elections examines different aspects of political behavior. Relying on an original panel survey of the Argentine 2015 elections to examine and place the case in comparative perspective, the volume demonstrates that our theories of voting behavior apply broadly, but context does matter.

Sub Track

• Political Institutions and Processes

Session Organizers

• Virginia Oliveros, Tulane University

• Luis E Schiumerini, University of Notre Dame

Chair

• Noam Lupu, Vanderbilt University

Presenters

• Amy E Smith, Iowa State University

• David J Samuels, University of Minnesota

• Ryan E Carlin, Georgia State University