By analyzing the key theories of political behavior in the context of Latin America, Orlando Perez illustrates the impact, nature, and limits of democratization. This book fills a longstanding gap in comparative politics by tying together the transformations in political institutions and processes in the developing world and the empirical data on political participation among the citizens of these countries.


Using AmericasBarometer, the most extensive and empirically grounded series of public opinion data ever conducted in Latin America, plus extensive examination of the available aggregate data on election results and turnout this book sheds light on citizen participation by answering the following questions: Why citizens vote? What factors shape their electoral choices? How and why do citizens support particular political parties? When, how, and why do citizens engage in politics? What role do parties and political candidates play in the levels of political engagement? What are the determinants of conventional and unconventional citizen participation, and how does each shape the nature of politics in Latin America? How, why, and under what circumstances do citizens support or oppose democracy as a political value? And what are the consequences of such support or opposition for the consolidation of democratic governance in Latin America, and by comparison the rest of the developed world?


Political Behavior in Latin America is the first comprehensive attempt to analyze empirically the factors that determine citizen participation in the region using theoretically grounded and empirically sound longitudinal data. This is a must-read for all students and scholars of political behavior, comparative politics, and Latin American studies.