The Politics of the Urban Informal Sector in Peru: Populism, Class, And “Redistributive Combines”

Abstract

AbstractThe political implications of the growth of the informal sector have received little attention in research on Latin America. This article examines ecological correlations between the size of the informal sector, as well as income strata, and voting in Lima, Peru. It seeks to explain a major reorientation of the populist party APRA toward the informal sector, the persistent inability of the right to win support from the informal sector and other lower income groups, and the electoral decline of the left despite its historically strong ties to the informal sector and the urban poor. Finally the article discusses the status of class in Peruvian politics and concludes that the expansion of informal economic activities makes the class position of workers more ambiguous, and voting patterns more unstable. Thus, the growth of the informal sector implies a flight from the traditional party system as well as from formal economic arrangements.