Beyond the Vote: What Is Meant by Left and Right? The Ideological Identification of Voters in Latin America

Abstract

This article reviews the development of the left-right notion and examines the extent to which voters position themselves on the ideological spectrum and consistently identify with its components. The methodological design includes the eighteen Latin American countries, whose observations are obtained from the Latinobarómetro database. A descriptive diachronic analysis of citizens’ ideological self-positioning is carried out, and, by means of a multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) and logistic (Logit) and linear (OLS) regression models, the theoretical assumptions are tested. The results show that three out of four individuals identify with these ideological positions. The study confirms that trust in the market economy, international financial institutions, globalization, relations with the United States, foreign investment, religion, education, age, and, to a lesser extent, privatizations help to predict the ideological identification of voters in the region. In Latin America, much of the literature has focused on studying the relevance and meaning of the left and right connotations from the perspective of political elites. However, this article aligns with and contributes to the limited empirical research on the study of this political phenomenon in the region from the perspective of the electorate.