AmericasBarometer
Reveals Political
Culture in Latin America
The Latin American
Public Opinion Project (LAPOP)
has unveiled for the
first time in Latin
America the
comprehensive results of
surveys that assess the
political culture of 21
countries in the Western
hemisphere.
The Casa de la
Universidad de
California en Mexico (Carment
I, Chimalistac, Ciudad
de Mexico) hosted a
one-day conference
spotlighting the
conclusions of the 2006
AmericasBarometer, an
effort to measure
democratic values and
behaviors in the
Americas. The survey
used national
probability samples of
voting-age adults.
Scholars from 19
countries presented
findings from surveys in
which more than 30,000
people were interviewed
about their democratic
values and behaviors.
The conference
presentations compared
issues vital to
understanding the
strengths and weaknesses
of democratic systems in
Latin America and the
Caribbean. The
AmericaBarometer uses a
questionnaire that
includes questions about
topics such as political
tolerance, support for
the system, trust in
political institutions,
security, corruption
perception and
victimization, and
understanding of
democracy.
The analyses were based
on data from Mexico, the
United States, Canada,
Guatemala, El Salvador,
Honduras, Nicaragua,
Costa Rica, Panama,
Ecuador, Bolivia,
Colombia, Brazil,
Paraguay, Uruguay,
Chile, Peru, Dominican
Republic, Haiti, Guyana
and Jamaica.
Researchers hope that
the data and the
conclusions drawn from
the 2006
AmericasBarometer
surveys will help
strengthen democracy
throughout the Western
Hemisphere.
We aim to provide
relevant and useful
information to academia
and the public in
general, with a view to
advancing knowledge
about values that
promote stable
democracies, said
Mitchell Seligson,
Centennial Professor of
Political Science at
Vanderbilt and founder
and director of LAPOP.
The AmericasBarometer
introduces elements of
leading indicators of
democratic stability for
policy makers, scholars
and citizens to use to
advance democracy in
their own countries.
The following results
were highlighted at the
presentation:
A strong indicator of
the prospects for
democratic stability in
a given country is
citizens belief in the
legitimacy of their
governments and their
willingness to respect
the right to political
opposition. By that
standard, the highest
scoring countries (on a
0-100 scale) are Canada
(68), the United States
(64), Costa Rica (50),
Uruguay (46) and Mexico
(41). At the low end are
Nicaragua (25), Haiti
(24), Paraguay (20),
Bolivia (20) and Ecuador
(12).
While the majority of
citizens in the Americas
believe that democracy
is the best possible
political system,
percentages still vary
dramatically, with 91
percent in the United
States, 87 percent in
Canada, 82 percent in
Uruguay, 77 percent in
Costa Rica, 69 percent
in Mexico and 60 percent
in Nicaragua and Peru
ranking democracy the
best. |
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