Who Votes for Populist Parties in Latin America?

Héctor E. Martínez García

Abstract:

Much research has been done regarding the profile of the populist voter in Europe; however, we know less about the populist voter in Latin America. Populism can have backsliding effects on democracy. Latin America, as a region has experienced populism throughout the 21^st century, it is thus pertinent to understand the Latin American populist voter, i.e., know the voter’s attitudes towards democracy, specifically towards the pillar norms of democracy. Following Van der Brug et al., this paper studies the attitudes of ten Latin American countries’ voters towards democratic norms, dividing by populist voters, non-populist voters, and interaction between incumbent and populist voters. This study finds that, in Latin America, voting for populists does not result in lesser support of democratic norms, even if the populist is incumbent. In contrast, this research finds that voting for an incumbent (irrespective of populist status) does result in a statistically significant decrease in supporting democratic norms. This paper calls for further research into Latin America’s voter profiles as well as more exhaustive datasets containing relevant information towards the study of democracy in the region.

Martínez García_2025_Who Votes for Populist Parties in Latin America.pdf

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