Abstract
Latin American democracies are experiencing high instability, signed by economic and political crises and increasing social conflict. In this scenario, the continuity and further development of democracies are far from being granted. From a political psychology perspective, we are interested in understanding public motivations for justifying an authoritarian interruption of the democratic order. On a 454 Cordoba citizens sample (mean age= 37.3, SD=14.22; 52.7% women, 47.3% men), we conducted a Discriminant Analysis to identify the more relevant dimensions for classifying people according to their attitudes towards a coup d’état. Six variables constituted the linear discriminant function resulting from a stepwise procedure (λ = 0.67, X2 = 151.5, gl = 6, p = 0) and enabled to classify 77.3% of the cases correctly. Conservative, normative, and ideological orientations were the more relevant dimensions to predict the justification of a state coup. Additionally, we identified two different attitudinal profiles among the people who are willing to justify a coup, mainly differentiated by their ideological orientations through a two-step cluster analysis. We accounted for a small group of people who justify a non-democratic exit to the socio-political conflict based on progressive ideological attitudes more than conservative or authoritarian orientations. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
Highlights
RESUMEN Las democracias latinoamericanas experimentan una alta inestabilidad, signada por crisis económicas y políticas y una creciente conflictividad social
Citizens massively claim for the fulfillment of frustrated expectations of a better quality of life and democratic institutionality: the consolidation of democracy has not been accompanied by improved system performance and institutional quality so that this democratic cycle seems to be reaching a peak of maximum tension (Levine & Molina, 2007)
Given that literature has largely documented that citizens' attitudes and behaviors are relevant to the development and sustainability of democracies, we decided to explore the motivations of people who are willing to justify a coup d’état as a response to economic, social, and political problems framed on a relatively consolidated democracy
Summary
RESUMEN Las democracias latinoamericanas experimentan una alta inestabilidad, signada por crisis económicas y políticas y una creciente conflictividad social. In a political scenario of social and political crisis, Latin American democracies’ stability no longer seems guaranteed (Svampa, 2019; Zovatto, 2018) Circumstances such as the coup d'état in Bolivia, mass protests in Chile and Colombia, and the return of rightist parties to power in Brazil and Uruguay seem to endanger the continuity of democratic governments. Regional indexes such as Latinobarometer (Corporación Latinobarómetro, 2018) or Latin American Democratic Development Index (Índice de Desarrollo Democrático de América Latina [IDD-LAT], 2016) show a steady drop in explicit democracy support rates, alongside less political and social trust in a setting of high corruption, poverty, and inequality. A political culture perspective posits that system performance is not enough to explain more fundamental bonds of citizenry with democracy and that legitimacy stems mostly from socially transmitted cultural norms, exogenous to the political system itself (Mishler & Rose, 2001)
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