ABSTRACT

The Characteristics of Downsian Voters in Latin America

Patricia Otero Felipe
Juan Antonio Rodríguez Zepeda

Ideological Linkages in Latin America: the Effect of Partisan and Individuals’ Characteristics on Party-Voters Congruence

In this paper our goal is to answer the following questions: What kind of parties have higher levels of ideological congruence with their voters? Which citizens build stronger linkages with the parties they vote for? What is the effect of uncertainty on party-voters ideological congruence? In order to do so, we propose a model of ideological congruence that has two innovative features. Firstly, it is a multilevel model that considers explanatory factors at the individual and the party level; therefore, it takes into account the demand and supply side of politics. Secondly, it accounts for the effect of uncertainty on the construction of ideological party-voters linkages. Afterwards, we test our model using data on Latin American public opinion and legislator’s interviews.