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Community Organizations and Latin America’s Poorest Citizens: Voting, Protesting, and Contacting Government

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2020

Carew Boulding Open the ORCID record for Carew Boulding [Opens in a new window]  and
Claudio A. Holzner Open the ORCID record for Claudio A. Holzner [Opens in a new window]
Carew Boulding
Affiliation:
Carew Boulding is an associate professor of political science at the University of Colorado. [email protected].
Claudio A. Holzner
Affiliation:
Claudio A. Holzner is an associate professor of political science at the University of Utah. [email protected].
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Abstract

How do Latin America’s poorest citizens participate in politics? This article explores the role that community organizations play in mobilizing individuals into three common modes of political participation: voting, protesting, and contacting government. It argues that community organizations help mobilize poor individuals both through the resources they provide for mobilization and because they serve as sites where political parties target individuals for mobilization. It analyzes survey data from LAPOP surveys for 18 Latin American countries and finds that overall, poor people are just as politically active as more affluent individuals; that involvement in community organizations is a very strong predictor of all types of political participation; and that membership in organizations has an especially strong effect on voting and protesting for poor people. By equalizing levels of political participation across income groups, organizations help erase class-based inequalities in participation that have plagued democracies in the region.

Keywords

Political participationcivil societycommunity organizationsdemocracyinequalityvotingprotestpoverty
Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 62 , Issue 4 , November 2020 , pp. 98 - 125
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the University of Miami

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Footnotes

Conflicts of interest: Carew Boulding and Claudio Holzner declare none.

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