Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T21:26:45.271Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Disunity in Diversity: Party System Fragmentation and the Dynamic Effect of Ethnic Heterogeneity on Latin American Legislatures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2022

Jóhanna Kristín Birnir  and
Donna Lee Van Cott
Jóhanna Kristín Birnir
Affiliation:
University at Buffalo-SUNY
Donna Lee Van Cott
Affiliation:
Tulane University
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This paper demonstrates that in Latin America a significant portion of the increased legislative party system fragmentation since the 1980s is explained by the recent political incorporation of ethnic populations. Until now, scholars have likely not identified this relationship because they have not used the nuanced measures of ethnic fractionalization that account for internal diversity of indigenous populations and race, and because they have not focused on the time period when ethnic peoples were politically incorporated. In addition to demonstrating this relationship statistically, we use two case studies from Bolivia and Ecuador to illustrate how in recent years the dynamic relationship between ethnic groups and political parties in Latin American legislatures has changed and resulted in the statistical association between ethnic fractionalization and party system fragmentation that we observe.

Resumo

Resumo

Este trabajo demuestra que en América Latina, una porción significativa del incremento en el nivel de fragmentación del sistema de partidos legislativo a partir de la década del ochenta se explica por la reciente incorporación política de poblaciones étnicas. Hasta el momento, los académicos tienden a no identificar esta relación porque no han utilizado las mediciones de fragmentación étnica dentro de las diversas poblaciones indígenas y raciales, y porque no se han concentrado en el período en el cual las poblaciones étnicas fueron incorporadas políticamente. Además de demostrar esta relación estadísticamente, utlizamos los estudios de caso de Bolivia y Ecuador para ilustrar cómo la relación dinámica entre los grupos étnicos y los partidos políticos en las legislaturas de América Latina ha cambiado en los años recientes, resultando en la asociación estadística observable entre fraccionamiento étnico y fragmentación del sistema de partidos.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , February 2007 , pp. 99 - 125
Copyright
Copyright © 2007 by the University of Texas Press

Footnotes

*

We would like to thank Jesse George and Andrew Gunnoe for valuable research assistance. We also thank Jeffry Lewis, Franco Mattei, and Michael Thies for statistical advice, Scott H. Beck, Michael Coppedge, Mark P. Jones, Steven Levitsky, Kenneth J. Mijeski, and José E. Molina V., for data, and Henry Dietz, Raul Madrid, Marc Rosenblum, and three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on earlier drafts. A prior version was presented at the 2004 Congress of the Latin American Studies Association. All errors and omissions are the authors’.

References

Albó, Xavier 1997 “Alcaldes y concejales campesinos/indígenas: La lógica tras las cifras.” In Indígenas en el poder local. La Paz: Ministerio de Desarrollo Humano.Google Scholar
Alesina, Alberto, Devleeschauwer, Arnaud, Easterly, William, Kurlat, Sergio, and Wacziarg, Romain 2003 “Fractionalization.” Journal of Economic Growth (8): 155–94.Google Scholar
Amorim Neto, Octavio, and Cox, Gary W. 1997 “Electoral Institutions, Cleavage Structures, and the Number of Parties.” American Journal of Political Science 41 (1): 149–174. (January).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andolina, Robert 1999 “Colonial Legacies and Plurinational Imaginaries: Indigenous Movement Politics in Ecuador and Bolivia”. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Political Science, University of Minnesota.Google Scholar
Annett, Anthony 2001 “Social Fractionalization, Political Instability, and the Size of Government.” IMF Staff Papers 48 (3) Washington D. C. International Monetary Fund.Google Scholar
Beck, Scott H., and Mijeski, Kenneth J. 2004 “Did Ecuador’s Indians Elect the President in 2002?“ Prepared for presentation at the 51st annual meeting of the Southeastern Council on Latin American Studies, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, March 4–6.Google Scholar
Birnir, Jóhanna Kristín 2004 “Stabilizing Party Systems and Excluding Segments of Society? The Effects of Formation Costs on Representation in Latin America.” Studies in Comparative International Development 39 (3): 3–28. (fall).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Birnir, Jóhanna Kristín 2007 Ethnicity and Electoral Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Chandra, Kanchan 2004 Why Ethnic Parties Succeed: Patronage and Ethnic Headcounts in India. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chiriboga, Manuel, and Rivera, Fredy 1989 “Elecciones de enero 1988 y participación indígena.” Ecuador Debate 17 (marzo): 181–221.Google Scholar
CIDOB 1996 “Movimiento Político. Comisión Técnico Política.” Junio, mimeo.Google Scholar
Collier, Ruth Berins, and Collier, David 1991 Shaping the Political Arena: Critical Junctures, the Labor Movement, and Regime Dynamics in Latin America. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Coppedge, Michael 1997a “A Classification of Latin American Political Parties.” Working paper 244. November. Notre Dame, IN: Kellogg Institute, University of Notre Dame.Google Scholar
Coppedge, Michael 1997b “District Magnitude, Economic Performance, and Party-system Fragmentation in Five Latin American Countries.” Comparative Political Studies 30 (2): 156–185. (April).Google Scholar
Cox, Gary W. 1997 Making Votes Count: Strategic Coordination in the World’s Electoral Systems. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deruyttere, Anne 1997 Indigenous Peoples and Sustainable Development. The Role of the Inter-American Development Bank. Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank.Google Scholar
Downs, Anthony 1957 An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper.Google Scholar
Fearon, James D. 2003 “Ethnic Structure and Cultural Diversity by Country.” Journal of Economic Growth 8: 195–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gomez, B.T., and Wilson, J.M. 2001 “Political Sophistication and Economic Voting in the American Electorate: A Theory of Heterogeneous Attribution.” American Journal of Political Science 45 (4): 899–914.Google Scholar
Guzmán, Mauricio León 2003 “Etnicidad y exclusión en el Ecuador: Una mirada a partir del Censo de Población de 2001.” Unpublished draft manuscript.Google Scholar
Instituto Nacional Estadística 2001 Censo nacional. La Paz: Instituto Nacional Estadística, República de Bolivia.Google Scholar
Dialogue, Inter-American 2002 “Afro-Descendants in Latin America: How Many?” Race Report. Washington, DC: Inter-American Dialogue.Google Scholar
Jones, Mark 1994 “Presidential Election Laws and Multipartism in Latin America.” Political Research Quarterly 47 (1): 41–57.Google Scholar
Jones, Mark 1995 “A Guide to the Electoral Systems of the Americas.” Electoral Studies 14 (1): 5–21.10.1016/0261-3794(94)00021-ZCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kinder, D., Adams, G. S., Gronke, P. W. 1989 “Economics and Politics in the 1984 American Presidential Election.” American Journal of Political Science 33 (2): 491–515.Google Scholar
Laakso, Murkuu, and Taagepera, Rein 1979 “Effective Number of Parties. A Measure with Application to Western Europe. Comparative Political Studies 12 (1): 3–27.Google Scholar
Levitsky, Steven, and Cameron, Maxwell A. 2001 “Democracy without Parties? Political Parties and Regime Collapse in Fujimori’s Peru.” Paper prepared for presentation at the Congress of the Latin American Studies Association in Washington, DC. September 6–8.Google Scholar
Lewis-Beck, M., and Paldam, M. 2000 “Economic Voting: An Introduction.” Electoral Studies 19 (2-3): 113–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lipset, S. M., and Rokkan, S., Eds. 1967 Party Systems and Voter Alignments: Cross-National Perspectives. International Yearbook of Political Behavior Research, 7. New York, Free Press.Google Scholar
Lucero, José Antonio 2002 “Arts of Unification: Political Representation and Indigenous Movements in Bolivia and Ecuador.” Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Politics, Princeton University.Google Scholar
Madrid, Raúl 2000a “Ethnic Cleavages and Electoral Volatility in Latin America.” Comparative Politics 38 (1): 1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Madrid, Raúl 2005b “Indigenous Voters and Party System Fragmentation in Latin America.” Electoral Studies 24 (4): 689–707. (December).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mainwaring, Scott, and Scully, Timothy, eds. 1995 Building Democratic Institutions: Party Systems in Latin America. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Mainwaring, Scott, and Shugart, Matthew Soberg, eds. 1997 Presidentialism and Democracy in Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
McDonald, Ronald H., and Ruhl, J. Mark 1989 Party Politics and Elections in Latin America. Boulder, Co.: Westview.Google Scholar
Moreno, Erika 2003 “Subnational Determinants of National Multipartism in Latin America.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 28 (2): 179–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mozaffar, Shaheen, Scaritt, James R., and Galaich, Glen 2003 “Electoral Institutions, Ethnopolitical Cleavages/and Party Systems in Africa’s Emerging Democracies.” American Political Science Review 97: 379–390.10.1017/S0003055403000753CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Donnell, Guillermo 1994 “The State, Democratization, and Some Conceptual Problems (A Latin American View with Glances at Some Post-Communist Countries).” In Latin American Political Economy in the Age of Neoliberal Reform: Theoretical and Comparative Perspectives for the 1990s, edited by Smith, William C., Acuña, Carlos H., and Gamarra, Eduardo A., 157–180. Miami: North-South Center.Google Scholar
Ordeshook, P. C., and Shvetsova, O. 1994 Ethnic Heterogeneity, District Magnitude, and the Number of Parties. American Journal of Political Science 38 (1): 100–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pallares, Amalia 2002 From Peasant Struggles to Indian Resistance. The Ecuadorian Andes in the Late Twentieth Century. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Payne, J. Mark, Daniel, Zovatto G., Flórez, Fernando Carillo, and Zavala, Andrés Allamand 2000 Democracies in Development: Politics and Reform in Latin America. Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank.Google Scholar
Pessoa, Vicente 1998 “Procesos indígenas de participación política y ciudadanía en los espacios de gobierno y desarrollo municipal.” In Alta, V., et al. comp. Pueblos indígenas y estado en América Latina. Quito: Universidad Andina Simon Bolivar.Google Scholar
Posner, Daniel 2004 “Measuring Ethnic Fractionalization in Africa.” American Journal of Political Science 48 (4): 849–863.Google Scholar
Posner, Daniel 2005 Institutions and Ethnic Politics in Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Powell, G. B. Jr. 1982 Contemporary Democracies. Participation, Stability, and Violence. Cambridge Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
PRODEPINE 1998 Censo nacional de organizaciones indígenas y negras e índice de fortalecimiento institucional. Quito, Ecuador: PRODEPINE.Google Scholar
Psacharopoulos, George, and Patrinos, Harry 1994 Indigenous People and Poverty in Latin America. Washington: The World Bank.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riker, William H. 1986 “Duverger’s Law Revisited.” In Lijphart, Arend and Grofman, Bernard, eds., Electoral Laws and their Political Consequences. New York, NY: Agathon Press.Google Scholar
Roberts, Kenneth M. 2002 “Party-Society Linkages and Democratic Representation in Latin America.” Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies 27 (53): 9–34.Google Scholar
Roeder, Philip G. 2001 “Ethnolinguistic Fractionalization (ELF) Indices, 1961 and 1985.” February 16. http//:weber.ucsd.edu\~proeder\elf.htm (accessed May 2004).Google Scholar
Rosenblum, Marc R., and Huelshoff, Michael 2004 “Not Whether but When: Institutions, Structure, and Political Parties.” Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Schiavon, Jorge A. n.d. “Effective Number Parties in Single or Lower House in Latin America (1980-2000).” CIDE. http://www.cide.edu/investigadores/jorge_schiavon/parties.html.Google Scholar
Shugart, Matthew Soberg, and Carey, John M. 1992 Presidents and Assemblies: Constitutional Design and Electoral Dynamics. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
SIISE 1955 Statistical Abstracts of Latin America. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center.Google Scholar
SIISE 2003 Sistema integrado de indicadores sociales de Ecuador. Quito, Ecuador: Secretaría Técnica del Frente Social e Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos. CD ROM.Google Scholar
Taagepera, Rein, and Shugart, Matthew Soberg 1989 Seats and Votes: The Effects and Determinants of Electoral Systems. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, Charles Lewis, and Hudson, Michael C. 1972 World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators, second edition. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Ticona Alejo, Esteban, Rojas, Gonzalo, and Albo, Xavier 1995 Votos y wiphalas: Campesinos y pueblos originarios en democracia. La Paz: CIPCA.Google Scholar
VAIPO. 1998 Desarrollo con identidad: Política nacional indígena y originaria. Viceministerio de Asuntos Indígenas y Pueblos Originarios, República de Bolivia.Google Scholar
Van Cott, Donna Lee 2000 “Party System Development and Indigenous Populations in Latin America: The Bolivian Case.” Party Politics 6 (2): (April)155–174.Google Scholar
Van Cott, Donna Lee 2005 From Movements to Parties in Latin America: The Evolution of Ethnic Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar