Latin America Clamours For Democracy

Posted on October 30, 2011 Updated on May 19, 2014

LATIN Americans are demanding more of their democracies, their institutions and governments; they worry about crime almost as much as about economic problems; and fewer of them think that their country is progressing. Those are some of the findings of the latest Latinobarómetro poll, taken in 18 countries and published exclusively by The Economist. Because the poll has been taken regularly since 1995, it does a good job showing how attitudes in the region are changing.

Despite Latin America’s strong recovery from the recession of 2008-09, this year’s poll, which was taken in July and August, reveals some diffuse discontents. It suggests that little over half of Latin Americans are convinced democrats, a fall of three points since last year.Guatemala,Honduras and Mexico all saw a sharp slump in support for democracy, probably because of high levels of violent crime in all those countries. Only 45% of Brazilian respondents were convinced democrats, a nine-point fall from last year: it is harder to pinpoint why, except perhaps that Dilma Rousseff, the new president has taken a tough line on corruption, thus drawing more attention to it.