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Political Institutions and Street Protests in Latin America

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  • Fabiana Machado
  • Carlos Scartascini
  • Mariano Tommasi

Abstract

This paper argues that where institutions are strong, actors are more likely to participate in the political process through institutionalized arenas, while where they are weak, protests and other unconventional means of participation become more appealing. This relationship is explored empirically by combining country-level measures of institutional strength with individual-level information on protest participation in 17 Latin American countries. Evidence is found that weaker political institutions are associated with a higher propensity to use alternative means for expressing preferences, that is, to protest. Also found are interesting interactions between country-level institutional strength and some individual-level determinants of participation in protests.

Suggested Citation

  • Fabiana Machado & Carlos Scartascini & Mariano Tommasi, 2009. "Political Institutions and Street Protests in Latin America," Research Department Publications 4643, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    • Handle: RePEc:idb:wpaper:4643
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    1. Carlos Scartascini & Mariano Tommasi, 2012. "The Making of Policy: Institutionalized or Not?," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 56(4), pages 787-801, October.
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    14. Mariano Tommasi, 2006. "The Institutional Foundations of Public Policy," Economía Journal, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association - LACEA, vol. 0(Spring 20), pages 1-36, January.
    15. Santiago Urbiztondo & Marcela Cristini & Cynthia Moskovitz & Sebastian Saiegh, 2009. "The Political Economy of Productivity in Argentina: Interpretation and Illustration," Research Department Publications 4641, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
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    17. Santiago Urbiztondo & Marcela Cristini & Cynthia Moskovits & Sebastián Saiegh, 2009. "The Political Economy of Productivity in Argentina: Interpretation and Illustration," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 5298, Inter-American Development Bank.
    18. repec:idb:brikps:40178 is not listed on IDEAS
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    As found on the RePEc Biblio, the curated bibliography for Economics:
    1. > Political Economy > The Political Economy of Latin America

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    Cited by:

    1. Carlos Scartascini & Mariano Tommasi, 2012. "The Making of Policy: Institutionalized or Not?," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 56(4), pages 787-801, October.
    2. Rachel R. Mourão & Magdalena Saldaña & Shannon C. McGregor & Adrian D. Zeh, 2016. "Support for Protests in Latin America: Classifications and the Role of Online Networking," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 5(4), pages 1-19, September.
    3. Patricia Justino & Bruno Martorano, 2019. "Redistributive Preferences and Protests in Latin America," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 63(9), pages 2128-2154, October.
    4. Justino, Patricia & Martorano, Bruno, 2018. "Welfare spending and political conflict in Latin America, 1970–2010," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 98-110.
    5. Roxana Gutiérrez-Romero, 2012. "An Inquiry into the Use of Illegal Electoral Practices and Effects of Political Violence," CSAE Working Paper Series 2012-16, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    6. Scartascini, Carlos & Tommasi, Mariano & Ardanaz, Martín, 2010. "Political Institutions, Policymaking, and Economic Policy in Latin America," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 1708, Inter-American Development Bank.
    7. Sarkar, Abhirup & Sinha, Abhinandan, 2022. "Clientelism and violence: The politics of informal economy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    8. Caruso, Germán & Scartascini, Carlos & Tommasi, Mariano, 2015. "Are we all playing the same game? The economic effects of constitutions depend on the degree of institutionalization," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 212-228.
    9. Ryan D. Griffiths & Louis M. Wasser, 2019. "Does Violent Secessionism Work?," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 63(5), pages 1310-1336, May.
    10. Jorge Gallego, 2018. "Civil conflict and voting behavior: Evidence from Colombia," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 35(6), pages 601-621, November.
    11. Pessino, Carola & Izquierdo, Alejandro & Vuletin, Guillermo, 2018. "Better Spending for Better Lives: How Latin America and the Caribbean Can Do More with Less," IDB Publications (Books), Inter-American Development Bank, number 9152.
    12. Valeria Palanza & Carlos Scartascini & Mariano Tommasi, 2012. "On the Institutionalization of Congress(es) in Latin America and Beyond," Research Department Publications 4817, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    13. Patricia Justino & Bruno Martorano, 2016. "Inequality, Distributive Beliefs and Protests: A Recent Story from Latin America," HiCN Working Papers 218, Households in Conflict Network.
    14. Luca Andriani & Gaygysyz Ashyrov, 2022. "Corruption and life satisfaction: Evidence from a transition survey," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(4), pages 511-535, November.
    15. Li Donni, Paolo & Marino, Maria & Welzel, Christian, 2021. "How important is culture to understand political protest?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    16. Soumyanetra Munshi, 2019. "Jaw–jaw and war–war: a game-theoretic exploration of violence in electoral politics," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 203-237, December.
    17. Patricia Justino & Bruno Martorano, 2017. "Welfare Spending and Political Conflict," HiCN Working Papers 256, Households in Conflict Network.
    18. Escriba-Folch, Abel & Meseguer, Covadonga & Wright, Joseph, 2018. "Remittances and protest in dictatorships," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 89058, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    19. Ronn Pineo, 2014. "The Free Market Experiment in Latin America," Journal of Developing Societies, , vol. 30(2), pages 169-194, June.
    20. Ilya A. Medvedev & Vadim V. Ustyuzhanin & Andrey V. Korotayev, 2021. "Education And Revolutions. Why Do Revolutionary Uprisings Take Violent Or Nonviolent Forms?," HSE Working papers WP BRP 81/PS/2021, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    21. Wang, Chendi, 2023. "The Streets Speak: Unravelling the Impact of Austerity on Public Protests during the the Great Recession," OSF Preprints 93tz4, Center for Open Science.
    22. Luis Rene Caceres, 2019. "Determinants of trust in government in Latin America," Remef - Revista Mexicana de Economía y Finanzas Nueva Época REMEF (The Mexican Journal of Economics and Finance), Instituto Mexicano de Ejecutivos de Finanzas, IMEF, vol. 14(3), pages 329-351, Julio - S.
    23. Mariano Tommasi & Germán Caruso & Carlos Scartascini, 2014. "Are We Playing the Same Game? The Economic Effects of Constitutions Depend on the Degree of Institutionalization," Working Papers 116, Universidad de San Andres, Departamento de Economia, revised Dec 2014.
    24. Amorim, Guilherme & Lima, Rafael Costa & Sampaio, Breno, 2022. "Broadband internet and protests: Evidence from the Occupy movement," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Political institutions; Public policies; Institutional strength; Protests; Alternative Political Technologies; Political party representation; Ideology; Ideological extremism; Latin America;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • D74 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions
    • D78 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Positive Analysis of Policy Formulation and Implementation
    • H89 - Public Economics - - Miscellaneous Issues - - - Other
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

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