Social cleavages and political dealignment in contemporary Chile, 1995–2009

Abstract

There is abundant research on how social cleavages shape political preferences in developed countries with uninterrupted democracies, but we know less about this topic for middle income countries with recently restored democracies. In this analysis of the Chilean case, we examine with Latinobarometer survey data from 1995 to 2009 the evolution of social cleavages as shapers of political preferences (measured with a left–right self-placement scale). We find a general process of dealignment across time, indicated by the decreasing association between political preferences on the one hand, and class, religion and regime preferences on the other. We tentatively link dealignment at the mass level to the strategies pursued by political parties operating in a political and economic context that encourages ideological moderation and convergence to the centre. These strategies weaken the differentiated signals needed for sustaining an aligned citizenry.

Historical Dramas, Current Political Choices: Analyzing Partisan Selective Exposure With a Docudrama

“…Responses were dummy-coded ( In addition, the survey asked respondents about their political identification, from which three binary variables were computed: identifies with the Alianza (18.2%), identifies with the Concertació n (20.6%), and identifies with Communist coalition (6.7%). The remaining categories (i.e., other political group [4.7%] and none [49.8%]) were combined into the reference category (for a discussion on why independents predominate in Chile, see Bargsted & Somma, 2013;Luna & Altman, 2011). Our choice of reference category was based on two considerations.…”

Ideological Preferences and Evolution of the Religious Cleavage in Chile, 1998–2014

“…Accordingly, a consolidation of these changes is likely to bring about an increase in the effect of religion on ideological preferences. Bargsted and Somma (2016) come to opposite conclusions. They affirm and provide empirical evidence, indicating that Chilean society is undergoing a process of political dealignment whereby the explanatory capacity of all cleavages (class, religion, and political) is in decline.…”

Explorando la relación entre evaluación y confianza gubernamental, posición polí­tica y participación electoral

“…Por otro lado, en Chile, además de las clásicas identificaciones por religión y clase, se ha identificado un tercer clivaje social que articula las preferencias e identificaciones políticas de los individuos: la oposición o apoyo al régimen de Augusto Pinochet, relacionados con la izquierda y derecha respectivamente (Bargsted & Somma, 2013;Meléndez & Rovira, 2017). Así, tanto partidos como ciudadanía se identifican en el continuo político de acuerdo con este clivaje, de modo que los sujetos tienden a respaldar a partidos que coincidan con su percepción acerca de la dictadura, al mismo tiempo que los políticos desarrollan estrategias que aseguren el respaldo de sujetos con su misma posición (Bargsted & Somma, 2013). En este sentido, la fuerte identifica-ción política que genera este clivaje en Chile podría determinar que los individuos confíen y evalúen positivamente a aquellos partidos situados en su mismo polo de creencias.…”

“…Con todo, en términos generales, se comprueba que quienes mantienen posiciones políticas tendientes a la izquierda, afines al gobierno de Michelle Bachelet, suelen experimentar la situación gubernamental de forma positiva, otorgándole una buena evaluación al gobierno en su desempeño y depositándole altos niveles de confianza. En este sentido, como señala la literatura, tanto la confianza como evaluación dependerían de la relación entre la posición política de los individuos y la tendencia ideológica gubernamental (Bargsted & Somma, 2013;Cárdenas et al, 2007;Kumlin, 2002;Zmerli, 2006).…”