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Political Representation in Latin AmericaA Study of Elite-Mass Congruence in Nine CountriesUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of California, Davis The authors combine elite and mass survey data to create indicators of representation for nine nations: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, and Uruguay. For the first time, a quantified measure of the extent to which political parties represent voters policy preferences in these countries is offered. The authors then examine the political, social, and economic correlates of representation. Consistent with extant literature and theory, they find that party system institutionalization and socioeconomic development are positively related to representation. On the other hand, drastic liberalization efforts seem to be associated with lower levels of representation. Furthermore, the authors find that leftist parties contribute to the representative structures of political systems. They also find that perceptions of fraud in an electoral system are correlated at a fairly high level with the indicator of representation: Citizens subjective perceptions of a system are consistent with its reality.
Key Words: Latin America representation democracy issue congruence ideology clientelism
Comparative Political Studies, Vol. 38, No. 4,
388-416 (2005) This article has been cited by other articles:
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