“Cultural Battles and/or Distributive Conflicts? Unpacking the Processes of Polarization in Latin America”

GABRIEL KESSLER; GABRIEL VOMMARO; GONZALO ASSUSA

Congreso; LASA 2022; 2022

Latin American Studies Association

Research on political preferences and voting in Latin America has historically emphasized the weight of socio-economic factors. In contrast, American literature on polarization has focused on the weight of cultural and moral factors. Currently, different countries in Latin America is undergoing a process of polarization. How do economic-distributive and cultural-moral factors interact in the polarization scenarios? In this paper we show, first, that the process of secularization is widespread in most of the countries studied, although resistant and very active conservative segments persist. Secondly, that cultural-moral issues become relevant in polarized conflicts by virtue of the relationship between the acceleration of changes in positions on cultural issues (secularization) and the increase in the dispersion and bimodality of positions. Third, that economic-distributive issues continue to shape political preferences and are the main arena of polarization in Latin America. However, the content of economic-distributive issues can vary: social spending, taxation, state intervention in the economy. Our paper studies the cases of Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico, which account for 80% of the Latin America population. It is based on an analysis of the historical series (from the 1980s to the present) of the World Values Survey and LAPOP and also includes data from a comparative study based on focus groups.