October 29, 2005
The Latinobarometro poll: Venezuela's support for democracy is one of the two highest in Latin America

Published by The Economist

"If anyone ever imagined that building strong democracies in Latin America would be a swift and easy task, this year's Latinobarometro poll should disabuse them. Economies have been growing strongly across the region and governments are spending more than ever on social programmes, but the poll-taken in 18 countries and published exclusively by The Economist suggests that only about half of Latin Americans are convinced democrats and only one in three is satisfied with the way their democracy works in practice. Those figures have remained almost identical for three years in a rowand are down on those of a decade ago.

This year's poll points to a slightly sunnier mood: political institutions are a little less reviled and presidents are still quite popular even though many are nearing the end of their term. Respondents are slightly more optimistic about their economic prospects, and a bit less hostile towards the United States. They are even starting to warm again to privatisation.

Latinobarometro, a Chilean organisation, has carried out similar surveys each year since the mid-1990s. So the poll has captured shifts in opinion in the region during a decade that saw initial enthusiasm for democracy and free-market reform tempered by recession (severe in places), and followed by the advent of leftish governments and then a strong economic recovery. Through this switchback, says Marta Lagos, Latinobarometro's director, what is striking is the underlying stability of opinion.

Support for democracy is lower in a dozen countries today than in 1996. It is worryingly low in Peru, parts of Central America and Paraguay (the only country with a strong authoritarian streak). In Brazil, some of the shine brought by the election of Lula da Silva in 2002 appears to have been removed by a recent corruption scandal involving his party. On the other hand, support for democracy is very high in Venezuela, perhaps because both supporters and opponents of Hugo Chávez, the socialist president, claim it as their banner. It is high, too, in two small countries, Uruguay and Costa Rica, which many political scientists say are the region's only 'consolidated' (ie, fully fledged) democracies. It is rising in Chile (which many would say now qualifies for the 'consolidated' tag) and in Mexico. But only in Uruguay and Venezuela are a majority of respondents satisfied with the working of democracy (...)".