Left and right: way to define them, Latin American case and their implications
Abstract Left and right (or liberal and conservative) are widely used concepts for analyzing parties and other political objects, but they have at least two problems. First, it is unclear whether they are useful outside rich democracies. Second, they are not defined in a single way; there are two broad approaches. On one side an historical-analytical tradition, and on the other side, an approach based on spatial theories of party competition. This paper: a) compares two classifications of Latin American political parties on the left-right scale according to those approaches, finding that they are very different; b) suggests a plausible explanation for those differences based on systematic patterns found in the data, explanation which leads to several testable hypotheses, and c) shows that available evidence and current literature support those hypotheses, hence the explanation itself.
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Ideology and Discontent. New York: Free Press, 1964.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0010414004273205
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SELIGSON, Mitchell. The Rise of Populism and the Left in Latin America. Journal of Democracy, 2007, vol. 18 (3): 81-95.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/jod.2007.0057
SINGER, André. Izquierda y Derecha en el Electorado Brasileño. Buenos Aires: CLACSO, 2002. TORCAL, Mariano y MAINWARING, Scott. The Political Recrafting of Social Bases of Party Competition: Chile, 1973-95. British Journal of Political Science, 2003, vol. 33 (1): 55-84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0007123403000036
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ZECHMEISTER, Elizabeth J. Qué es la izquierda y quién está a la derecha en la política mexicana. Un enfoque con el método Q al estudio de las etiquetas ideológicas. Política y Gobierno, 2006, vol. 8 (1): 51-98.
ZECHMEISTER, Elizabeth J. y CORRAL, Margarita. Individual and Contextual Constraints on Ideological Labels in Latin America. Comparative Political Studies, 2012, vol. 46 (6): 675-701.
ALEXANDER, Robert J. (ed.). Political Parties of the Americas: Canada, Latin America, and the West Indies. 2 vols. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1988.
ALTMAN, David; LUNA, Juan Pablo; PIÑEIRO, Rafael y TORO, Sergio. Partidos y sistemas de partidos en América Latina: Aproximaciones desde la encuesta a expertos 2009. Revista de Ciencia Política, 2009, vol. 29 (3): 775-798.
CAMERON, Maxwell. Democracy and Authoritarianism in Peru: Political Coalitions and Social Change. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994.
CARREIRAO, Yan de Souza. Identificação Ideológica e Voto para Presidente. Opinião Pública, 2002, vol. 8 (1): 54-79.
CASTAÑEDA, Jorge. Latin America’s Left Turn. Foreign Affairs, mayo-junio, 2007: 28-43.
CASTAÑEDA, Jorge y NAVIA, Patricio. The Year of the Ballot. Current History, febrero, 2007: 51-57.
COGGINS, John y LEWIS, David S. (eds.). Political Parties of the Americas and the Caribbean: A Reference Guide. London: Longman Current Affairs, 1992.
COLOMER, Josep M. y ESCATEL, Luis E. The left-right dimension in Latin America. Documento de Trabajo del Departamento de Economía y Empresa #813. Barcelona: Universidad Pompeu Fabra, 2005.
CONVERSE, Philip E. The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics. En APTER, David (ed.).
Ideology and Discontent. New York: Free Press, 1964.
CONVERSE, Philip E. y PIERCE, Roy. Political Representation in France. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1986.
COPPEDGE, Michael. A Classification of Latin American Political Parties. Working Paper, 1997, n.º 244. The Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies, University of Notre Dame.
COPPEDGE, Michael. The dynamic diversity of Latin American party systems. Party Politics, 1998, vol. 4 (4): 547-568. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1354068898004004007
DOGAN, Mattei. La ciencia política y las otras ciencias sociales. En GOODIN, Robert y KLINGEMANN, Hans-Dieter (eds.). Nuevo Manual de Ciencia Política, vol. 1. Madrid: Ediciones Istmo, 2001: 158.
DOŠEK, Tomáš. Do Left and Right Differentiate Citizens and Politicians in Latin America? Boletín PNUD e Instituto de Iberoamérica, 2011, n.º 3.
DOWNS, Anthony. An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper and Row, 1957. ECHEGARAY, Fabián. Economic Crises and Electoral Responses in Latin America. Lanham, Mary-land: University Press of America, 2005.
FUKUYAMA, Francis. The End of History and the Last Man. New York: Free Press, 1992.
GONZÁLEZ, Luis E. Political Structures and Democracy in Uruguay. Notre Dame, Indiana: The Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies University of Notre Dame Press, 1991.
GONZÁLEZ, Luis E. Political crises and democratization in Latin America since the end of the Cold War. Working Paper, 2008, n.º 353. The Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies University of Notre Dame.
HARBERS, Imke; DE VRIES, Catherine E. y STEENBERGEN, Marco R. Attitude Variability Among Latin American Publics: How Party System Structuration Affects Left/Right Ideology. Comparative Political Studies, 2012, vol. 46 (8): 947-967.
HUBER, John e INGLEHART, Ronald. Expert Interpretations of Party Space and Party Locations in 42 Societies. Party Politics, 1995, vol. 1 (1): 73-111. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1354068895001001004
KNIGHT, Kathleen. Transformations of the Concept of Ideology in the Twentieth Century. American Political Science Review, 2006, vol. 100 (4): 619-626. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0003055406062502
LUNA, Juan Pablo y ZECHMEISTER, Elizabeth J. Political representation in Latin America. A study of elite-mass congruence in nine countries. Comparative Political Studies, 2005, vol. 38 (4): 388-416.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0010414004273205
MAINWARING, Scott y TORCAL, Mariano. Party system institutionalization and party system theory after the third wave of democratization. En KATZ, Richard S. y CROTTY, William (eds.). Handbook of Party Politics. London: Sage, 2006: 218.
PAYNE, J. Mark; ZOVATTO, Daniel y MATEOS DÍAZ, Mercedes. La política importa. Washington, DC: Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo – IDEA, 2003.
QUEIROLO, María del Rosario. The Success of the Left in Latin America: Untainted Parties, Market Reforms and Voting Behavior. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2013.
SANI, Giacomo y SARTORI, Giovanni. Polarization, Fragmentation and Competition in Western Democracies. En DAALDER, Hans y MAIR, Peter (eds.). Western European Party Systems: Continuity and Change. London: Sage, 1983: 307-340.
SARTORI, Giovanni. Parties and Party Systems: A Framework for Analysis. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1976.
SELIGSON, Mitchell. The Rise of Populism and the Left in Latin America. Journal of Democracy, 2007, vol. 18 (3): 81-95.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/jod.2007.0057
SINGER, André. Izquierda y Derecha en el Electorado Brasileño. Buenos Aires: CLACSO, 2002. TORCAL, Mariano y MAINWARING, Scott. The Political Recrafting of Social Bases of Party Competition: Chile, 1973-95. British Journal of Political Science, 2003, vol. 33 (1): 55-84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0007123403000036
WIESEHOMEIER, Nina. The meaning of left-right in Latin America: A comparative view. Working Paper, 2010, n.º 370 (julio). The Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies University of Notre Dame.
ZECHMEISTER, Elizabeth J. Qué es la izquierda y quién está a la derecha en la política mexicana. Un enfoque con el método Q al estudio de las etiquetas ideológicas. Política y Gobierno, 2006, vol. 8 (1): 51-98.
ZECHMEISTER, Elizabeth J. y CORRAL, Margarita. Individual and Contextual Constraints on Ideological Labels in Latin America. Comparative Political Studies, 2012, vol. 46 (6): 675-701.
González Ferrer, L. E., & Queirolo Velasco, R. (2013). Left and right: way to define them, Latin American case and their implications. América Latina Hoy, 65, 79–105. https://doi.org/10.14201/alh20136579105
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