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Indigenous people, redistribution, and support for the political regime in Latin America

Acta Politica volume 57, pages 52–72 (2022)Cite this article

Abstract

Political scientists agree that inequality harms the consolidation of democracy, raising fears that the erosion of public support for the political regime could lead to political instability, particularly when the distributive conflict is reinforced by ethnicity. Focussing on Latin America, the region with the world’s largest indigenous population and most unequal income distribution, this paper analyses to what extend socioeconomic inequalities lessen levels of support for the political regime, especially among indigenous people. We found—by applying multilevel regression analyses to Latinobarómetro survey databases for the years 2007–2017—that socioeconomic inequalities do affect citizens’ levels of regime support. However, indigenous people are no less likely to be supportive of the political regime than non-indigenous people, even in those countries that are more unequal according to the Gini coefficient or the poverty rate. Furthermore, indigenous people tend to express levels of regime support that are similar to the rest of society’s inclusive among those of lower socioeconomic status. These findings highlight the importance of moving towards a better understanding of how indigenous people see the political regime and its implications for democratic consolidation.

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Notes

  1. We considered black/mulatto ethnic groups in those countries in which they represented over 5% of the population in the Latinobarómetro survey (Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama).

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Acknowledgements

The author thanks the reviewers for their valuable comments.

Funding

Funding was provided by Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico (Grant Number 11150280).

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  1. Instituto de Asuntos Públicos, Universidad de Chile, Santa Lucía 240, 8320208, Santiago Centro, Chile

    Jaime Fierro

  2. GEDIME/CER-Migracions, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Jaime Fierro

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Fierro, J. Indigenous people, redistribution, and support for the political regime in Latin America. Acta Polit 57, 52–72 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41269-020-00173-5

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Keywords

  • Indigenous people
  • Multicultural citizenship
  • Economic inequality
  • Support for the political regime
  • Latin america

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