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Uneven States, Unequal Societies, and Democracy’s Unfulfilled Promises: Citizenship Rights in Chile and Contemporary Latin America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 May 2023

Juan Pablo Luna Open the ORCID record for Juan Pablo Luna [Opens in a new window]  and
Rodrigo M. Medel Open the ORCID record for Rodrigo M. Medel [Opens in a new window]
Juan Pablo Luna
Affiliation:
Juan Pablo Luna is a professor at the Escuela de Gobierno, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and a researcher at the Instituto Milenio Fundamentos de los Datos, VIODEMOS, and CAPES-UC, Santiago, Chile. jp_luna@me.com.
Rodrigo M. Medel
Affiliation:
Rodrigo M. Medel is an assistant professor of Sociology at the Universidad Andrés Bello (UNAB), Santiago, Chile. rmmedel@uc.cl.
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Abstract

In contemporary Latin America, deep-seated social discontent with political elites and institutions has been, paradoxically, the counterpart of democratic stability and resilience. This paradox suggests that scholarly assessments of democracy are, at least partially, at odds with citizens’ own views of democracy. This article thus develops a framework to describe citizens’ everyday experience with civil, political, and social entitlements associated with democracy. It introduces the framework by analyzing the structural underpinnings of democratic discontent in Chile and then applying it to the analysis of perceived citizenship entitlements in 18 countries, using the AmericasBarometer data. Significant variance is observed across time and both across and within countries. The descriptive findings also imply that only a (declining) minority of Latin American citizens feel fully entitled to civil, political, and social citizenship rights. We advocate the need to bring the demand side of democracy back to the analysis of democratic shortcomings and crises.

Keywords

CitizenshipdemocracyequalityLatin Americasocial conflictstate
Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 65 , Issue 2 , May 2023 , pp. 170 - 196
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the University of Miami

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Footnotes

Conflicts of interest: The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, or publication of this article.

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