Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wzw2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-01T09:11:14.645Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Governance Quality, Fairness Perceptions, and Satisfaction with Democracy in Latin America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2021

Gregory W. Saxton Open the ORCID record for Gregory W. Saxton [Opens in a new window]
Gregory W. Saxton*
Affiliation:
Gregory W. Saxton is a visiting assistant professor of political science at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, USA. gregory.saxton@ttu.edu.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

How do individuals’ fairness judgments affect their political evaluations? This article argues that when citizens perceive high levels of distributive unfairness in society, they will be less satisfied with the way democracy functions. Yet good governance—that is, impartiality in the exercise of political authority—should mitigate the negative influence of perceived distributive unfairness on satisfaction. Using a cross-national analysis of 18 Latin American countries from 2011 to 2015, this study demonstrates that individuals are significantly less satisfied with democracy when they perceive their country’s income distribution as unfair. Yet good governance significantly offsets this negative relationship, even in a region with the highest level of inequality in the world. These findings imply that policymakers can bolster democratic satisfaction, even in places where citizens perceive the income distribution as fundamentally unfair, by committing to good governance and fair democratic procedures.

Keywords

satisfaction with democracygovernancecorruptioninequalitydistributive fairness
Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 63 , Issue 2 , May 2021 , pp. 122 - 145
Copyright
© The Author, 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the University of Miami

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Conflict of interest: I, Gregory W. Saxton, declare no conflict of interest.

References

REFERENCES

Aarts, Kees, and Jaccques, Thomassen. 2008. Satisfaction with Democracy: Do Institutions Matter? Electoral Studies 27, 1: 5–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Christopher, and Guillory, Christine A.. 1997. Political Institutions and Satisfaction with Democracy: A Cross-National Analysis of Consensus and Majoritarian Systems. American Political Science Review 91, 1: 66–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Christopher, and Matthew, Singer. 2008. The Sensitive Left and the Impervious Right: Multilevel Models and the Politics of Inequality, Ideology, and Legitimacy in Europe. Comparative Political Studies 41, 4–5: 564–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Christopher J., and Tverdova, Yuliya V.. 2003. Corruption, Political Allegiances, and Attitudes Toward Government in Contemporary Democracies. American Journal of Political Science 47, 1: 91–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Christopher, Blais, André, Bowler, Shaun, Donovan, Todd, and Listhaug, Ola. 2005. Losers’ Consent: Elections and Democratic Legitimacy. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
André, Audrey, and Sam, Depauw. 2017. The Quality of Representation and Satisfaction with Democracy: The Consequences of Citizen-Elite Policy and Process Congruence. Political Behavior 39, 2: 377–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnes, Tiffany D., and Córdova, Abby. 2016. Making Space for Women: Explaining Citizen Support for Legislative Gender Quotas in Latin America. Journal of Politics 78, 3: 670–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnes, Tiffany D., Beaulieu, Emily, and Saxton, Gregory W.. 2020. Sex and Corruption: How Sexism Shapes Voters’ Responses to Scandal. Politics, Groups, & Identities 8, 1: 103–21.Google Scholar
Biggs, Brian, King, Lawrence, Basu, Sanjay, and Stuckler, David. 2010. Is Wealthier Always Healthier? The Impact of National Income Level, Inequality, and Poverty on Public Health in Latin America. Social Science & Medicine 71, 2: 266–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bogliaccini, Juan A., and Luna, Juan Pablo. 2019. Preferences for Redistribution and Tax Burdens in Latin America. In The Political Economy of Taxation in Latin America, ed. Gustavo, A. Flores-Macías. New York: Cambridge University Press. 219–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Booth, John A, and Seligson, Mitchell A.. 2009. The Legitimacy Puzzle in Latin America: Political Support and Democracy in Eight Nations. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bormann, Nils-Christian, and Matt, Golder. 2013. Democratic Electoral Systems Around the World, 1946–2011. Electoral Studies 32, 2: 360–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bratton, Michael, and Robert, Mattes. 2001. Support for Democracy in Africa: Intrinsic or Instrumental? British Journal of Political Science 31, 3: 447–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canache, Damarys, Jeffrey, Mondak, and Seligson, Mitchell. 2001. Meaning and Measurement in Cross-National Research on Satisfaction with Democracy. Public Opinion Quarterly 65, 4: 506–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cassese, Eric C., and Barnes, Tiffany D.. 2019. Reconciling Sexism and Women’s Support for Republican Candidates: A Look at Gender, Class, and Whiteness in the 2012 and 2016 Presidential Races. Political Behavior 41, 3: 677–700.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cassese, Erin C., and Holman, Mirya R.. 2019. Playing the Woman Card: Ambivalent Sexism in the 2016 Presidential Race. Political Psychology 40, 1: 55–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christmann, Pablo, and Mariano, Torcal. 2018. The Effects of Government Fractionalization on Satisfaction with Democracy. Political Science Research and Methods 6, 3: 593–611.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clayton, Amanda, O’Brien, Diana Z., and Piscopo, Jennifer M.. 2019. All Male Panels? Representation and Democratic Legitimacy. American Journal of Political Science 63, 1: 113–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Córdova, Abby. 2009. Methodological Note: Measuring Relative Wealth Using Household Asset Indicators. AmericasBarometer Insights 2009, 6. https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/insights/I0806en_v2.pdf Google Scholar
Córdova, Abby, and Matthew, Layton. 2016. When Is Delivering the Goods Not Enough? How Economic Disparities in Latin American Neighborhoods Shape Citizen Trust in Local Government. World Politics 68, 1: 74–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Córdova, Abby, and Seligson, Mitchell A.. 2010. Economic Shocks and Democratic Vulnerabilities in Latin America and the Caribbean. Latin American Politics and Society 52, 2: 1–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dahlberg, Stefan, Jonas, Linde, and Holmberg, Sören. 2015. Democratic Discontent in Old and New Democracies: Assessing the Importance of Democratic Input and Governmental Output. Political Studies 63, 1: 18–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalton, Russell. 2004. Democratic Challenges, Democratic Choices: The Erosion of Political Support in Advanced Industrial Democracies. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daoust, Jean-François, and Richard, Nadeau. 2020. Context Matters: Economics, Politics and Satisfaction with Democracy. Electoral Studies. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2020.102133 Google Scholar
Donovan, Todd, and Jeffrey, Karp. 2017. Electoral Rules, Corruption, Inequality, and Evaluations of Democracy. European Journal of Political Research 56, 3: 469–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Easton, David. 1975. A Re-Assessment of the Concept of Political Support. British Journal of Political Science 5, 4: 435–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esarey, Justin, and Schwindt-Bayer, Leslie A.. 2018. Women’s Representation, Accountability and Corruption in Democracies. British Journal of Political Science 48, 3: 659–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferraz, Claudio, and Frederico, Finan. 2011. Electoral Accountability and Corruption: Evidence from the Audits of Local Governments. American Economic Review 101, 4: 1274–1311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilens, Martin. 2012. Affluence and Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Harbers, Imke. 2015. Taxation and the Unequal Reach of the State: Mapping State Capacity in Ecuador. Governance 28, 3: 373–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hetherington, Mark J. 1998. The Political Relevance of Political Trust. American Political Science Review 92, 4: 791–808.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hibbing, John R., and Theiss-Morse, Elizabeth. 2001. Process Preferences and American Politics: What the People Want Government to Be. American Political Science Review 95, 1: 145–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jost, John T. 2017. Working-Class Conservatism: A System Justification Perspective. Current Opinion in Psychology 18 (December): 73–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jost, John T., and Hunyady, Orsolya. 2003. The Psychology of System Justification and the Palliative Function of Ideology. European Review of Social Psychology 13, 1: 111–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jost, John T., and Hunyady, Orsolya. 2005. Antecedents and Consequences of System-Justifying Ideologies. Current Directions in Psychological Science 14, 5: 260–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jost, John T., and Thompson, Erik P.. 2000. Group-Based Dominance and Opposition to Equality as Independent Predictors of Self-Esteem, Ethnocentrism, and Social Policy Attitudes Among African Americans and European Americans. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 36, 3: 209–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jost, John T., Pelham, Brett W., Oliver, Sheldon, and Bilian, Ni Sullivan. 2003. Social Inequality and the Reduction of Ideological Dissonance on Behalf of the System: Evidence of Enhanced System Justification Among the Disadvantaged. European Journal of Social Psychology 33, 1: 13–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kang, WooJin. 2015. Inequality, the Welfare System, and Satisfaction with Democracy in South Korea. International Political Science Review 36, 5: 493–509.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaufmann, Daniel, Kraay, Aart, and Mastruzzi, Massimo. 2011. The Worldwide Governance Indicators: Methodology and Analytical Issues. Hague Journal on the Rule of Law 3, 2: 220–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kay, Aaron C., and Jost, John T.. 2003. Complementary Justice: Effects of Poor but Happy and Poor but Honest Stereotype Exemplars on System Justification and Implicit Activation of the Justice Motive. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 85, 5: 823–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krieckhaus, Jonathan, Son, Byunghwan, Bellinger, Nisha Mukherjee, and Wells, Jason M.. 2014. Economic Inequality and Democratic Support. Journal of Politics 76, 1: 139–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lerner, Melvin J., and Miller, Dale T.. 1978. Just World Research and the Attribution Process: Looking Back and Ahead. Psychological Bulletin 85, 5: 1030–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linde, Jonas. 2012. Why Feed the Hand That Bites You? Perceptions of Procedural Fairness and System Support in Post-Communist Democracies. European Journal of Political Research 51, 3: 410–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linde, Jonas, and Joakim, Ekman. 2003. Satisfaction with Democracy: A Note on a Frequently Used Indicator in Comparative Politics. European Journal of Political Research 42, 3: 391–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linz, Juan J, and Stepan, Alfred. 1996. Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Luna, Juan Pablo, and Hillel, David Soifer. 2017. Capturing Subnational Variation in State Capacity: A Survey-Based Approach. American Behavioral Scientist 61, 8: 887–907.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Magalhães, Pedro C. 2016. Economic Evaluations, Procedural Fairness, and Satisfaction with Democracy. Political Research Quarterly 69, 3: 522–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mainwaring, Scott. 2006. The Crisis of Representation in the Andes. Journal of Democracy 17, 3: 13–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McAllister, Ian. 1999. The Economic Performance of Governments. In Critical Citizens: Global Support for Democratic Governance, ed. Norris, Pippa. New York: Oxford University Press. 169–87.Google Scholar
Meltzer, Allan H., and Richard, Scott F.. 1981. A Rational Theory of the Size of Government. Journal of Political Economy 89, 5: 914–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merkley, Eric, Cutler, Fred, Quirk, Paul J., and Nyblade, Benjamin. 2019. Having Their Say: Authority, Voice, and Satisfaction with Democracy. Journal of Politics 81, 3: 848–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mishler, William, and Richard, Rose. 2001. What Are the Origins of Political Trust? Testing Institutional and Cultural Theories in Post-Communist Societies. Comparative Political Studies 34, 1: 30–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, Jana, and Kelly, Nathan J.. 2016. Social Patterns of Inequality, Partisan Competition, and Latin American Support for Redistribution. Journal of Politics 79, 1: 193–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norris, Pippa. 2011. Democratic Deficit: Critical Citizens Revisited. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Donnell, Guillermo, Schmitter, Philippe C., and Whitehead, Lawrence. 1986. Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Latin America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Osberg, Lars, and Timothy, Smeeding. 2006. “Fair” Inequality? Attitudes Toward Pay Differentials: The United States in Comparative Perspective. American Sociological Review 71, 3: 450–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Powers, Nancy. 2001. Grassroots Expectations of Democracy and Economy: Argentina in Comparative Perspective. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Rothstein, Bo, and Jan, Teorell. 2008. What Is Quality of Government? A Theory of Impartial Government Institutions. Governance 21, 2: 165–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwindt-Bayer, Leslie A. 2010. Political Power and Women’s Representation in Latin America. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shepherd, Andrew. 2000. Governance, Good Government and Poverty Reduction. International Review of Administrative Science 66, 2: 269–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singer, Matthew. 2018. Delegating Away Democracy: How Good Representation Policy Success Can Undermine Democratic Legitimacy. Comparative Politics Studies 51, 13: 1754–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singh, Shane, and Ryan, Carlin. 2015. Happy Medium, Happy Citizens: Presidential Power and Democratic Regime Support. Political Research Quarterly 68, 1: 3–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solt, Frederick. 2008. Economic Inequality and Democratic Political Engagement. American Journal of Political Science 52, 1: 48–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solt, Frederick. 2020. Measuring Income Inequality Across Countries and Over Time: The Standardized World Income Inequality Database. Social Science Quarterly 10, 3: 1183–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stegmueller, Daniel. 2013. How Many Countries for Multilevel Modeling? A Comparison of Frequentist and Bayesian Approaches. American Journal of Political Science 57, 3: 748–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tang, Min, and Narisong, Huhe. 2020. Contextualizing the Economic Basis of Political Support: Government Economic Engagement, Economic Perceptions, and Democratic Satisfaction. Political Research Quarterly 73, 2: 425–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor-Robinson, Michelle M. 2010. Do the Poor Count? Democratic Institutions and Accountability in a Context of Poverty. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
Trump, Kris-Stella. 2018. Inequality Influences Perceptions of Legitimate Income Differences. British Journal of Political Science 48, 4: 929–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyler, Tom. 2006. Psychological Perspectives on Legitimacy and Legitimation. Annual Review of Psychology 57, 1: 375–400.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van Ryzin, Gregg G. 2011. Outcomes, Process, and Trust of Civil Servants. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 21, 4: 745–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vásquez, Ian, and Fred, McMahon. 2020. The Human Freedom Index 2020: A Global Measurement of Person, Civil, and Economic Freedom. Vancouver: Frasier Institute. https://www.fraserinstitute.org/studies/economic-freedom-of-the-world-2018-annual-report.Google Scholar
Waksalk, Cheryl J., Jost, John T., Tyler, Tom R., and Chen, Emmeline S.. 2007. Moral Outrage Mediates the Dampening Effect of System Justification on Support for Redistribution. Psychological Science 18, 3: 267–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weitz-Shapiro, Rebecca. 2008. The Local Connection: Local Government Performance and Satisfaction with Democracy in Argentina. Comparative Political Studies 41, 3: 285–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zechmeister, Elizabeth J., and Zizumbo-Colunga, Daniel. 2013. The Varying Political Toll of Concerns About Corruption in Good Versus Bad Economic Times. Comparative Political Studies 46, 10: 1190–1218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zmerli, Sonja, and Juan, Carlos Castillo. 2015. Income Inequality, Distributive Fairness and Political Trust in Latin America. Social Science Research 52 (July): 179–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Supplementary material: PDF

Saxton supplementary material

Appendix

Download Saxton supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 672.2 KB