Suchergebnisse

This article explores how the incidence of gangs in Salvadoran neighborhoods erodes trust in the national government. The results show that the levels of trust in the national government vary from one neighborhood to another, depending on their vulnerability to gang generated insecurity. In addition, this article demonstrates that, in neighborhoods with high gang incidence, crime victims and non-victims show similar and low levels of trust in the national government. ; Este artículo explora cómo la incidencia de las pandillas en los barrios salvadoreños erosiona la confianza en el gobierno nacional. Los resultados muestran que los niveles de confianza en el gobierno nacional varían de un barrio a otro, dependiendo de la vulnerabilidad de sus habitantes a la inseguridad generada por las pandillas. Se demuestra que, en barrios asediados por las pandillas, víctimas y no víctimas del crimen muestran niveles similares y bajos de confianza en el gobierno nacional.

A review essay covering books by 1) Maxwell A. Cameron, Eric Hershberg, and Kenneth E. Sharpe (Eds.), New Institutions for Participatory Democracy in Latin America: Voice and Consequence (2012), 2) Jean-Paul Faguet, Decentralization and Popular Democracy: Governance from Below in Bolivia (2012), 3) Sharon F. Lean, Civil Society and Electoral Accountability in Latin America (2013), 4) Eduardo Silva (Ed.), Transnational Activism and National Movements in Latin America (2013) and 5) Guillermo Trejo, Popular Movements in Autocracies: Religion, Repression, and Indigenous Collective Action in Mexico (2012).

Historical evidence suggests that bad economic times often mean bad times for democracy, but prior research has given us little guidance on how this process may work. What economic conditions are most threatening, and how might they weaken consolidating democracies? This article uses the AmericasBarometer conducted by the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) to answer these questions by focusing on core attitudes for the consolidation of democracy. We use survey data at the level of the individual and economic data at the country level to help detect democratic vulnerabilities in Latin America and the Caribbean. The study finds that conditions of low levels of economic development, low economic growth, and high levels of income inequality increase those vulnerabilities substantially, but the effects are not uniform across individuals. Some groups, especially the young and the poor, are particularly vulnerable to some antidemocratic appeals. Adapted from the source document.

While the world is focused on the economic impact of the financial and credit meltdown, what might be its impact on politics? In well-established democracies, probably not more than elections lost by incumbent parties seen as having mismanaged the economy. But what of consolidating democracies that predominate in the developing world, where some forecasts expect the crisis to hit the poor especially hard? This article uses AmericasBarometer survey data from Latin America and the Caribbean drawn on the eve of the crisis to project how it might affect democracy in the region. Adapted from the source document.