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“Paz sí, pero no así”? Voter Profiles and Attitudes Toward the 2016 Colombian Peace Agreement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2021

Manuela Muñoz Open the ORCID record for Manuela Muñoz [Opens in a new window]  and
Mónica Pachón Open the ORCID record for Mónica Pachón [Opens in a new window]
Manuela Muñoz
Affiliation:
Manuela Muñoz is a doctoral student in political science at Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA. [email protected].
Mónica Pachón
Affiliation:
Mónica Pachón is an associate professor on the Architecture and Design Faculty, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia. [email protected].
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Abstract

In October 2016, the proposed peace agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was narrowly defeated in a referendum that sought its public approval. This article examines how previous structured political predispositions and attitudes shape voters’ preferences in a referendum. In a combined survey—a face-to-face sample in Bogotá and an online sample—conducted before the plebiscite, it identifies voter cleavages using principal component analysis (PCA). It finds three consistent components with profiles reflecting whether an individual is a progovernment citizen, a right-conservative voter, and a citizen with an evangelical religious identity. The findings suggest that voters are heterogeneous and that different predispositions and attitudes cluster in specific types of voters, which shaped these voters’ willingness to endorse the proposed peace agreement.

Keywords

voting behaviorattitudesreferendumpeace agreementColombiaLatin America
Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 63 , Issue 1 , February 2021 , pp. 95 - 117
Copyright
© The Authors, 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the University of Miami

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Footnotes

Conflict of interest: Authors declare none.

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