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The Impact of Criminal Violence on Regime Legitimacy in Latin America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2022

Miguel Carreras
Miguel Carreras*
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
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Abstract

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What is the impact of exposure to criminal violence on support for political institutions in Latin America? The increase in criminal violence in the region since the return to democratic rule makes this a timely question. Several scholars have demonstrated the impact of a series of variables (political performance, economic performance, interpersonal trust, perception of corruption) on citizens' support for political institutions (system support). The goal of this study is to assess the impact of two additional variables (victimization and perception of violence) that have been neglected in the literature. I test the impact of exposure to violence on system support by using survey data from the 2004 edition of the Latin American Public Opinion Project. My findings demonstrate that both victimization and high perception of violence have a negative impact on system support in Latin America.

Resumo

Resumo

¿Cuál es el impacto de la exposición a la violencia sobre el apoyo sistémico a las instituciones políticas en América Latina? El aumento de la violencia criminal en la región desde el retorno a la democracia provee una oportunidad para intentar responder a esta pregunta. Varios investigadores demostraron que una serie de variables (performance política, performance económica, confianza interpersonal, percepción de corrupción) tienen un impacto importante sobre el apoyo de los ciudadanos a las instituciones políticas. El objetivo de este estudio es analizar el impacto de dos variables adicionales (victimización y percepción de violencia) que fueron menos estudiadas en la literatura de comportamiento político. Analizo el impacto de exposición a la violencia sobre el apoyo a las instituciones políticas usando la edición 2004 de las encuestas del Latin American Public Opinion Project. Mis resultados demuestran que tanto victimización como percepción de violencia tienen un impacto negativo sobre el apoyo a las instituciones políticas en América Latina.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 48 , Issue 3 , 2013 , pp. 85 - 107
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 by the Latin American Studies Association

Footnotes

I thank Aníbal Pérez-Liñán, Steven Finkel, David Barker, Néstor Castañeda-Augarita, Juan Antonio Rodríguez-Zepeda, Laura Wills-Otero, and three anonymous reviewers for useful comments on previous drafts of this article.

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