Abstract

ARMESTO, Alejandra. Political Representation of Support for Redistribution in Latin America. Perf. latinoam. [online]. 2025, vol.33, n.65, pp.45-77.  Epub May 27, 2025. ISSN 0188-7653.  https://doi.org/10.18504/pl3365-003-2025.

Studies on the representation of citizens’ policy preferences in consolidated democracies point to two sources of bias: money and partisanship. In Latin America, redistributive policies do not show these biases. The representation of redistributive preferences is shaped by the nature of the ties between citizens and political parties. Programmatic and charismatic ties should lead to a higher level of representation of the redistributive preferences of middle and lower sectors by left-wing governments and clientelistic ties should reduce this representation regardless of ideology. I analyze survey and income redistribution data in Latin American democracies between 2008 and 2018. The results are mixed. Left-wing parties represent the redistributive preferences of low-or middle-income voters when they have highly charismatic ties, in line with hypotheses, and low programmatic ties, contrary to expectations. Clientelistic ties do not shape the representation of redistributive preferences.

Keywords : democracy; redistribution; responsiveness; government ideology; party linkages.

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