Suchergebnisse

The aim of this paper is to identify emotions that a group of young middle-class voters from Lima, expressed toward a probable victory of Lourdes Flores, Ollanta Humala & Alan Garcia during 2006 presidential elections in Peru. To accomplish this objective, two samples were recruited: one before the elections, & the other after them. Results suggest, taking into consideration biases introduced during sampling, that Flores was associated to positive emotions in both groups. On the other side, Ollanta Humala & Alan Garcia were associated to negative emotions. Specifically, Humala's participation was considered more threatening than Garcia's candidature. Results are discussed analyzing the role played by mass media during the elections. Also discussed are how right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) & social dominance orientation (SDO) influence emotional responses towards each candidate. Adapted from the source document.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the social representations of democracy, populism and the relationship between both concepts in a sample of citizens from different regions of Peru (n = 76). To this end, a qualitative research design was proposed, using in-depth interviews, which were analyzed from a discursive approach. The results show that democracy and populism are two closely related concepts in tension. On the one hand, the social representation of democracy is semantically poor, closely related to electoral behavior and is seen as a political system that, ideally, is positively valued. Populism, on the other hand, is seen as a political strategy based on the manipulation of citizens' needs in order to reach power using the democratic process of elections. The representation of populism in general is negative, and it is mentioned that it appears and acquires strength in the face of citizen dissatisfaction with democracy, when it cannot solve problems of poverty, corruption or exclusion. The representations of populism take up the constitutive components proposed by different authors on the topic (people, elites and democracy as a product of popular will), but the participants do not necessarily structure the relationships between these components as proposed in the academic literature. Finally, the results shows that respondents' experiences with democracy and populism in Peru act as important socializing forces that will frame how citizens relate to politics and the public.