Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T16:04:24.888Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Discontent and the Left Turn in Latin America*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2013

Nina Wiesehomeier  and
David Doyle
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The electoral success of the left across Latin America has largely been interpreted as a backlash against globalization and a manifestation of anti-market voting of citizens increasingly frustrated with their experience of representative democracy. However, studies trying to test these propositions show rather inconclusive results and face the problem of translating objective economic conditions into observable individual perceptions. This article contends that theories of subjective well-being in psychology and economics can shed light on this left turn. In particular, life satisfaction, as a manifestation of experienced utility, can help explain the electoral outcomes observed throughout the region. The findings show that support for the left is higher the more unsatisfied voters are under a right incumbent.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Political Science Research and Methods , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , December 2013 , pp. 201 - 221
Copyright
Copyright © The European Political Science Association 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Nina Wiesehomeier is Lecturer in Politics, Department of Political & Cultural Studies Swansea University, James Callaghan Building Singleton Park Swansea SA2 8PP, Wales, UK ([email protected]). David Doyle is University Lecturer, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford, Manor Road Building, Manor Road, Oxford, OX1 3UQ, UK ([email protected]). To view supplementary material for this article, please visit http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/psrm.2013.14

References

Alesina, Alberto F., Giuliano, Paola. 2009. ‘Preference for Redistribution’. Working Paper no. 14825. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.Google Scholar
Álvarez-Díaz, Lucas GonzálezRadcliff, Benjamin. 2010. ‘The Politics of Happiness: On the Political Determinants of Quality of Life in the American States’. Journal of Politics 72(3):894–905.Google Scholar
Arnold, Jason RossSamuels, David J. 2011. ‘Evidence from Public Opinion’. In The Resurgence of the Latin American Left, edited by Steven Levitsky and Kenneth M. Roberts, 31–51. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Arnson, Cynthia J. 2007. ‘Introduction’. In The New Left and Democratic Governance in Latin America, edited by Cynthia J. Arnson and José Raúl Perales, 3–10. Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.Google Scholar
Baker, Andy. 2003. ‘Why is Trade Reform so Popular in Latin America? A Consumption-Based Theory of Trade Preferences’. World Politics 55(3):423–455.Google Scholar
Baker, AndyGreene, Kenneth F.. 2011. ‘The Latin American Left's Mandate: Free Market Policies, Economic Performance, and Voting Behavior in 18 Countries’. World Politics 63(1):43–77.Google Scholar
Benabou, Roland, Ok, Efe. 1998. ‘Social Mobility and the Demand for Redistribution: The POUM Hypothesis’. Working Paper no. 6795. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benton, Allyson. 2005. ‘Dissatisfied Democrats or Retrospective Voters? Economic Hardship, Political Institutions, and Voting Behavior in Latin America’. Comparative Political Studies 38(4):417–442.Google Scholar
Berkman, Heather, Scartascini, Carlos G., Stein, Ernesto, Tommasi, Mariano. 2008. ‘Political Institutions, State Capabilities, and Public Policy: An International Dataset’. Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank.Google Scholar
Birdsall, Nancy, Graham, Carol, Pettinato, Stefano. 2000. ‘Stuck in the Tunnel: Is Globalization Muddling the Middle Class?’ Center on Social and Economic Dynamics Working Paper Series no. 14. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Brambor, Thomas, Clark, William R.Golder, Matt. 2006. ‘Understanding Interaction Models: Improving Empirical Analyses’. Political Analysis 14:63–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cameron, Maxwell A. 2009. ‘Latin America's Left Turns: Beyond Good and Bad’. Third World Quarterly 30(2):331–348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castañeda, Jorge. G. 2006. ‘Latin America's Left Turn’. Foreign Affairs 85(3):28–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, Andrew E. 2010. ‘Work, Jobs, and Well-Being Across the Millenium’. International Differences in Well-Being, edited by Ed Diener, John F. Helliwell, and Daniel Kahneman, 436–468. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Clark, Andrew E., Frijters, Paul, Shields, Michael. 2007. ‘Relative Income, Happiness, and Utility: An Explanation for the Easterlin Paradox and other Puzzles’. Discussion Paper 2840. Bonn: Institute for the Study of Labor.Google Scholar
Cleary, Matthew R. 2006. ‘Explaining the Left's Resurgence’. Journal of Democracy 17(4):35–49.Google Scholar
Cui, James. 2007. ‘QIC Program and Model Selection in GEE Analyses’. The Stata Journal 7(2):209–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
D'Ambrosio, Conchita, Frick, Joachim R.. 2004. ‘Subjective Well-Being and Relative Deprivation: an Empirical Link’. Discussion Paper no. 449, Berlin: DIW.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Debs, AlexandreHelmke, Gretchen. 2010. ‘Inequality under Democracy: Explaining the Left Decade in Latin America’. Quarterly Journal of Political Science 5(3):209–241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Di Tella, Rafael, MacCulloch, Robert J.Oswald, Andrew. 2001. ‘Preferences over Inflation and Unemployment. Evidence from Surveys of Happiness’. American Economic Review 91(1):335–341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diener, Ed, Suh, Eunkook M., Lucas, Richard E.Smith, Heidi L.. 1999. ‘Subjective Well-Being: Three Decades of Progress’. Psychological Bulletin 125(2):276–302.Google Scholar
Diener, EdRyan, Katherine. 2009. ‘Subjective Well-Being: A General Overview’. South African Journal of Psychology 39(4):391–406.Google Scholar
Easterlin, Richard A. 2009. “Lost in Transition: Life Satisfaction on the Road to Capitalism’. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 71(2):130–145.Google Scholar
Emmons, RobertDiener, Ed. 1985. ‘Factors Predicting Satisfaction Judgments: A Comparative Examination’. Social Indicators Research 16:157–167.Google Scholar
Fiorina, Morris P. 1981. Retrospective Voting in American National Elections. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Frey, Bruno S., Luechinger, Simon, Stutzer, Alois. 2009. ‘The Life Satisfaction Approach to Environmental Evaluation’. Discussion Paper 4478. Bonn: Institute for the Study of Labor.Google Scholar
Frey, Bruno S.Stutzer, Alois. 2002. ‘What Can Economists Learn from Happiness Research?’ Journal of Economic Literature 40:402–435.Google Scholar
Graham, Carol, Pettinato, Stefano. 2000. ‘Happiness, Markets, and Democracy: Latin America in Comparative Perspective’. Center on Social and Economic Dynamics Working Paper Series 13. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Graham, Carol, Pettinato, Stefano. 2002a. ‘Frustrated Achievers: Winners, Losers and Subjective Well-Being in New Market Economies’. Journal of Development Studies 38(4):100–140.Google Scholar
Graham, Carol, Pettinato, Stefano. 2002b. ‘Hardship and Happiness: Mobility and Public Perceptions during Market Reforms’. World Economics 1(4):73–112.Google Scholar
Graham, John W., Olchowski, Allison E.Gilreath, Tamika D.. 2007. ‘How Many Imputations are Really Needed? Some Practical Clarifications of Multiple Imputation Theory’. Prevention Science 8:206–213.Google Scholar
Grosfeld, Irena, Senik, Claudia. 2008. ‘The Emerging Aversion to Inequality: Evidence from Poland 1992–2005’. Working Paper no. 919. Ann Arbor, MI: William Davidson Institute.Google Scholar
Healy, Andrew J., Malhotra, NeilHyunjung Mo, Cecilia. 2010. ‘Irrelevant Events Affect Voters’ Evaluations of Government Performance’. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107(29):12804–12809.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Helliwell, John F. 2003. ‘How's Life? Combining Individual and National Variables to Explain Subjective Well-being’. Economic Modelling 20:331–360.Google Scholar
Hirschmann, Albert O. 1973. ‘Changing Tolerance for Income Inequality in the Course of Economic Development’. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 87(4):544–566.Google Scholar
Honaker, James, King, Gary, Blackwell, Matthew. 2007. Amelia II: A Program for Missing Data. http://gking.harvard.edu/amelia/ (accessed 15 October 2010).Google Scholar
Kaufman, Robert. 2011. ‘The Political Left, the Export Boom, and the Populist Temptation’. In Steven Levitsky and Kenneth M. Roberts. The Resurgence of the Latin American Left. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Kramer, Gerald. 1983. ‘The Ecological Fallacy Revisited: Aggregate Versus Individual-Level Findings on Economics and Elections, and Sociotropic Voting’. American Political Science Review 77(1):92–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Latinobarómetro. Data for 1997–2008. http://www.latinobarometro.org (accessed 10 January 2011).Google Scholar
Levitsky, StevenRoberts, Kenneth. 2011. ‘Latin America's “Left Turn”: A Framework for Analysis’. In Steven Levitsky and Kenneth Roberts, The Resurgence of the Latin American Left, 1–30. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lora, Eduardo, Olivera, Mauricio. 2005. The Electoral Consequences of Washington Consensus. Working Paper 530. Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luna, Juan PabloFilgueira, Fernando. 2009. ‘The Left Turns as Multiple Paradigmatic Crises’. Third World Quarterly 30(2):371–395.Google Scholar
Mainwaring, Scott. 2006. ‘The Crisis of Representation in the Andes’. Journal of Democracy 17(3):13–27.Google Scholar
Mondak, Jeffery J., Mutz, Diana C.Huckfeldt, Robert. 1996. ‘Persuasion in Context: The Multilevel Structure of Economic Evaluations’. In Political Persuasion and Attitude Change, edited by Diana Mutz, Paul M. Sniderman and Richard A. Brody, 249–266. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Montero, Alfred. 2010. ‘Their Separate Ways: Leftist Mobilization and Clientelist Continuity in Brazilian Subnational Politics’. Paper presented at the workshop on Political Consequences of Declining Inequality in Brazil, Oxford University, 3 December.Google Scholar
Murillo, Maria Victoria, Oliveros, VirginiaVaishnav, Milan. 2010. ‘Electoral Revolution or Democratic Alternation?’ Latin American Research Review 45(3):87–114.Google Scholar
Panizza, Francisco. 2005. ‘Unarmed Utopia Revisited: The Resurgence of Left-of-Centre Politics in Latin America’. Political Studies 54:716–734.Google Scholar
Remmer, Karen L. 2012. ‘The Rise of Leftist-Populist Governance in Latin America’. Comparative Political Studies 2012 45(8):947–972.Google Scholar
Roberts, Kenneth M. 2007. ‘Latin America's Populist Revival’. SAIS Review XXVII(1):3–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Senik, Claudia. 2009. ‘Direct Evidence on Income Comparisons and their Welfare Effects’. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 72(1):408–424.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singer, Matthew. 2010. ‘Who Says “It's the Economy”? Cross-National and Cross-Individual Variation in the Salience of Economic Performance’. Comparative Political Studies 44(3):284–312.Google Scholar
Steenbergen, Marco R.Jones, Bradford S.. 2002. Modeling Multi-level Data Structures. American Journal of Political Science 46(1):218–237.Google Scholar
Weatherford, M. Stephen. 1983. ‘Evaluating Economic Policy: A Contextual Model of the Opinion Formation Process’. Journal of Politics 45(4):866–888.Google Scholar
Weitz-Shapiro, RebeccaWinters, Matthew S.. 2011. ‘The Link Between Voting and Life Satisfaction in Latin America’. Latin American Politics and Society 53(4):101–126.Google Scholar
Whiteley, Paul, Clarke, Harold D., Sanders, DavidStewart, Marianne C.. 2010. ‘Government Performance and Life Satisfaction in Contemporary Britain’. Journal of Politics 72(3):733–746.Google Scholar
Wiesehomeier, NinaBenoit, Kenneth. 2009. ‘Presidents, Parties and Policy Competition’. Journal of Politics 71(4):1435–1447.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Wiesehomeier Supplementary Material

Figures and Tables

Download Wiesehomeier Supplementary Material(File)
File 496.1 KB