Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-jr42d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T00:53:52.245Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Nearness of Youth: Spatial and Temporal Effects of Protests on Political Attitudes in Chile

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2021

Rodolfo Disi Pavlic Open the ORCID record for Rodolfo Disi Pavlic [Opens in a new window]
Rodolfo Disi Pavlic*
Affiliation:
Rodolfo Disi Pavlic is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Political Science at Temuco Catholic University, Temuco, Chile. rdisi@uct.cl.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Social movement research indicates that mobilization can effect change in political attitudes, yet few works have systematically tested the effect of protests on public opinion. This article uses survey and protest event data to assess the spatial and temporal effect of mobilizations on political attitudes Chile. It combines the 2008, 2010, and 2012 LAPOP surveys and a dataset of college student protest events, mapping respondents and protests at the municipal level using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Using regression analyses, it finds that proximity to college student protests has a significant effect on various political attitudes. The effect, however, tends to be substantively larger on “weak” attitudes and smaller on “strong” ones. The results highlight the importance of mobilizations in shaping individual political attitudes and the role that social movements play in the policy-making process.

Keywords

protestpolitical attitudesattitude changeChilean politicsstudent mobilization
Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 63 , Issue 1 , February 2021 , pp. 72 - 94
Copyright
© The Author, 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the University of Miami

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Conflict of interest: The author declares none.

References

Agnone, Jon. 2007. Amplifying Public Opinion: The Policy Impact of the U.S. Environmental Movement. Social Forces 85, 4: 1593–1620. https://doi.org/10.1353/sof.2007.0059Google Scholar
Albarracin, Dolores, and Sharon, Shavitt. 2018. Attitudes and Attitude Change. Annual Review of Psychology 69, 1: 299–327. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-122216-011911CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Almond, Gabriel Abraham, and Sidney, Verba. 2015. The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Alwin, Duane F., and Jon, A. Krosnick. 1991. Aging, Cohorts, and the Stability of Sociopolitical Orientations over the Life Span. American Journal of Sociology 97, 1: 169–95. https://doi.org/10.1086/229744CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Amenta, Edwin, Neal, Caren, Elizabeth, Chiarello, and Yang, Su. 2010. The Political Consequences of Social Movements. Annual Review of Sociology 36, 1: 287–307. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-070308-120029Google Scholar
Andrews, Kenneth T., Kraig, Beyerlein, and Tuneka, Tucker Farnum. 2016. The Legitimacy of Protest: Explaining White Southerners' Attitudes Toward the Civil Rights Movement. Social Forces 94, 3: 1021–44. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/sov097CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arriagada, Arturo, Patricio, Navia, and Martin, Schuster. 2010. ¿Consumo luego pienso, o pienso y luego consumo?: Consumo de medios, predisposición política, percepción económica y aprobación presidencial en Chile. Revista de Ciencia Política 30: 669–95.Google Scholar
Banaszak, Lee Ann, and Heather, L. Ondercin. 2016. Public Opinion as a Movement Outcome: The Case of the U.S. Women's Movement. Mobilization: An International Quarterly 21, 3: 361–78. https://doi.org/10.17813/1086-671X-21-3-361CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bargsted, Matías A., and Luis, Maldonado. 2018. Party Identification in an Encapsulated Party System: The Case of Postauthoritarian Chile. Journal of Politics in Latin America 10, 1: 29–68. https://doi.org/10.1177/1866802X1801000102CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bassili, John N. 2008. Attitude Strength. In Attitudes and Attitude Change, ed. William, D. Crano and Radmila, Prislin. New York: Psychology Press. 237–60.Google Scholar
Bohner, Gerd, and Nina Dickel, . 2011. Attitudes and Attitude Change. Annual Review of Psychology 62, 1: 391–417. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.121208.131609CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Branton, Regina, Valerie Martínez-Ebers, Tony E. Carey, and Tetsuya, Matsubayashi. 2015.Google Scholar
Social Protest and Policy Attitudes: The Case of the 2006 Immigrant Rallies. American Journal of Political Science 59, 2: 390–402. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12159CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, Donald T. 1963. Social Attitudes and Other Acquired Behavioral Dispositions. In Psychology: A Study of a Science, ed. Sigmund Koch. Vol. 6: Investigations of Man as Socius: Their Place in Psychology and the Social Sciences. Study II, Empirical Substructure and Relations with Other Sciences. New York: McGraw-Hill. 94–172.Google Scholar
Carlin, Ryan E. 2006. The Socioeconomic Roots of Support for Democracy and the Quality of Democracy in Latin America. Revista de Ciencia Política 26: 48–66.Google Scholar
Coenders, Marcel, and Peer, Scheepers. 2003. The Effect of Education on Nationalism and Ethnic Exclusionism: An International Comparison. Political Psychology 24, 2: 313–43.Google Scholar
Collingwood, Loren, Nazita, Lajevardi, and Kassra, A. R. Oskooii. 2018. A Change of Heart?Google Scholar
Why Individual-Level Public Opinion Shifted Against Trump's “Muslim Ban.” Political Behavior 40, 4: 1035–72. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-017-9439-z.Google Scholar
Disi, Rodolfo. 2017. Policies, Politics, and Protests: Explaining Student Mobilization in Latin America. PhD. diss., University of Texas at Austin. https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/bitstream/handle/2152/60377/DISIPAVLIV-DISSERTATION-2016.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.Google Scholar
Disi, Rodolfo. 2018. Sentenced to Debt: Explaining Student Mobilization in Chile. Latin American Research Review 53, 3: 448–65. https://doi.org/10.25222/larr.395Google Scholar
Disi, Rodolfo, and Roberto Mardones, . 2019. Chile 2010: la desafección política y su impacto en la participación política convencional y no convencional. Revista Del CLAD, Reforma y Democracia no. 73 (February): 189–226.Google Scholar
Dogan, Mattei, and Stein, Rokkan. 1969. Quantitative Ecological Analysis in the Social Sciences. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Donoso, Sofia. 2016. When Social Movements Become a Democratizing Force: The Political Impact of the Student Movement in Chile. In Protest, Social Movements and Global Democracy Since 2011: New Perspectives, ed. Thomas Davies, Holly Eva Ryan, and Alejandro Milcíades Peña. Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change series, vol. 39, 167–96. Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing Group.Google Scholar
Donoso, Sofia, and Marisa, von Bülow, eds. 2017a. Social Movements in Chile. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Donoso, Sofia, and Marisa, von Bülow. 2017b. Introduction: Social Movements in Contemporary Chile. In Donoso and von Bülow 2017a. 3–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Easton, David. 1965. A Systems Analysis of Political Life. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Easton, David. 1975. A Re-Assessment of the Concept of Political Support. British Journal of Political Science 5, 4: 435–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, M. D. R. 2002. National Pride in the Developed World: Survey Data from 24 Nations. International Journal of Public Opinion Research 14, 3: 303–38. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/14.3.303CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fazio, Russell H. 2007. Attitudes as Object-Evaluation Associations of Varying Strength.Google Scholar
Social Cognition 25, 5: 603–37. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2007.25.5.603. Feldman, Stanley. 1989. Measuring Issue Preferences: The Problem of Response Instability.Google Scholar
Political Analysis 1: 25–60. https://doi.org/10.1093/pan/1.1.25CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finkel, Steven E., Edward, N. Muller, and Mitchell, A. Seligson. 1989. Economic Crisis, Incumbent Performance and Regime Support: A Comparison of Longitudinal Data from West Germany and Costa Rica. British Journal of Political Science 19, 3: 329. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123400005512CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Former Student Leader. 2014. Member of the Libertarian Students Front (Frente de Estudiantes Libertarios, FEL), Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. Author interview. Santiago de Chile, November 11.Google Scholar
Frye, Timothy, and Ekaterina Borisova, . 2019. Elections, Protest, and Trust in Government: A Natural Experiment from Russia. Journal of Politics 81, 3: 820–32. https://doi.org/10.1086/702944CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galston, William A. 2001. Political Knowledge, Political Engagement, and Civic Education.Google Scholar
Annual Review of Political Science 4, 1: 217–34. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.polisci.4.1.217CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garretón, Matías, Alfredo Joignant, Nicolás Somma, and Tomás, Campos. 2017. Conflicto social en Chile 2015–2016: disputando mitos. Notas COES de Política Pública 4 (July). Santiago: Centro de Estudios de Conflicto y Cohesión Social. https://www.coes.cl/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/DIG_N4_Conflicto-Social-en-Chile-2015-2016.-Disputandomitos.pdfGoogle Scholar
Garritzmann, Julian L. 2015. Attitudes Towards Student Support: How Positive Feedback-Effects Prevent Change in the Four Worlds of Student Finance. Journal of European Social Policy 25, 2: 139–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/0958928715573478CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gawronski, Bertram, and Galen, V. Bodenhausen. 2007. Unraveling the Processes Underlying Evaluation: Attitudes from the Perspective of the Ape Model. Social Cognition 25, 5: 687–717. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2007.25.5.687Google Scholar
Giugni, Marco. 2004. Social Protest and Policy Change: Ecology, Antinuclear, and Peace Movements in Comparative Perspective. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Greenwald, Anthony G., and Mahzarin, R. Banaji. 1995. Implicit Social Cognition: Attitudes, Self-Esteem, and Stereotypes. Psychological Review 102, 1: 4–27. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.102.1.4CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hillygus, D. 2005. The Missing Link: Exploring the Relationship Between Higher Education and Political Engagement. Political Behavior 27, 1: 25–47. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-005-3075-8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hiskey, Jonathan T., and Shaun, Bowler. 2005. Local Context and Democratization in Mexico. American Journal of Political Science 49, 1: 57–71. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0092-5853.2005.00110.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hooghe, Marc, and Britt, Wilkenfeld. 2008. The Stability of Political Attitudes and Behaviors Across Adolescence and Early Adulthood: A Comparison of Survey Data on Adolescents and Young Adults in Eight Countries. Journal of Youth and Adolescence 37, 2: 155–67. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-007-9199-xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iyengar, Shanto. 1980. Subjective Political Efficacy as a Measure of Diffuse Support. Public Opinion Quarterly 44, 2: 249–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iyengar, Shanto, and Adam, F. Simon. 2000. New Perspectives and Evidence on Political Communication and Campaign Effects. Annual Review of Psychology 51, 1: 149–69. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.51.1.149CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ketchley, Neil, and Thoraya, El-Rayyes. Forthcoming. Unpopular Protest: Mass Mobilization and Attitudes to Democracy in Post-Mubarak Egypt. Journal of Politics. https://doi.org/10.1086/709298.Google Scholar
Key, V. O. 1964. Public Opinion and American Democracy. 2nd ed. New York: Knopf. Krosnick, Jon A, and Richard E. Petty. 1995. Attitude Strength: An Overview. In AttitudeGoogle Scholar
Strength: Antecedents and Consequences, ed. Petty. Ohio State University Series on Attitudes and Persuasion 4. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. 1–24.Google Scholar
Kubal, Mary Rose, and Eloy, Fisher. 2016. The Politics of Student Protest and Education Reform in Chile: Challenging the Neoliberal State. The Latin Americanist 60, 2: 217–42. https://doi.org/10.1111/tla.12075CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP). 2015. AmericasBarometer Grand Merge 2004–2014 (version 3.0 Free). Nashville: Vanderbilt University. http://datasets.americasbarometer.org/databaseGoogle Scholar
Lau, Richard R., and David, P. Redlawsk. 2001. Advantages and Disadvantages of Cognitive Heuristics in Political Decision Making. American Journal of Political Science 45, 4: 951. https://doi.org/10.2307/2669334CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, Taeku. 2002. Mobilizing Public Opinion: Black Insurgency and Racial Attitudes in the Civil Rights Era. Studies in Communication, Media, and Public Opinion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Mazumder, Soumyajit. 2018. The Persistent Effect of U.S. Civil Rights Protests on Political Attitudes. American Journal of Political Science 62, 4: 922–35. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12384Google Scholar
Medel, Rodrigo, and Nicolás, Somma. 2016. ¿Marchas, ocupaciones o barricadas? Explorando los determinantes de las tácticas de la protesta en Chile. Política y Gobierno 23, 1: 163–99.Google Scholar
Montero, José, Richard, Gunther, and Mariano, Torcal. 1997. Democracy in Spain: Legitimacy, Discontent, and Disaffection. Studies in Comparative International Development 32, 3: 124–60. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02687334CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muñoz, Jordi, and Eva, Anduiza. 2019. “If a Fight Starts, Watch the Crowd”: The Effect of Violence on Popular Support for Social Movements. Journal of Peace Research 56, 4: 485–98. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343318820575Google Scholar
Newman, Brian, and Andrew, Forcehimes. 2010. “Rally Round the Flag” Events for Presidential Approval Research. Electoral Studies 29, 1: 144–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2009.07.003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palacios-Valladares, Indira, and Gabriel, Ondetti. 2018. Student Protest and the Nueva Mayoría Reforms in Chile. Bulletin of Latin American Research 38, 5 (October). https://doi.org/10.1111/blar.12886Google Scholar
Petty, Richard E., Pablo, Briñol, and Kenneth, G. DeMarree. 2007. The Meta-Cognitive Model (MCM) of Attitudes: Implications for Attitude Measurement, Change, and Strength. Social Cognition 25, 5: 657–86. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2007.25.5.657CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prior, Markus. 2010. You've Either Got It or You Don't? The Stability of Political Interest over the Life Cycle. Journal of Politics 72, 3: 747–66. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022381610000149CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rudman, Laurie A., Meghan, C. McLean, and Martin, Bunzl. 2013. When Truth Is Personally Inconvenient, Attitudes Change: The Impact of Extreme Weather on Implicit Support for Green Politicians and Explicit Climate-Change Beliefs. Psychological Science 24, 11: 2290–96. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797613492775CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sabatini, Francisco, Gonzalo, Cáceres, and Jorge, Cerda. 2001. Segregación residencial en las principales ciudades chilenas: tendencias de las tres últimas décadas y posibles cursos de acción. EURE: Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios Urbano Regionales 27: 21–42.Google Scholar
Schwarz, Norbert. 2007. Attitude Construction: Evaluation in Context. Social Cognition 25, 5: 638–56. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2007.25.5.638CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sears, David O., and Carolyn, L. Funk. 1999. Evidence of the Long-Term Persistence of Adults' Political Predispositions. Journal of Politics 61, 1: 1–28. https://doi.org/10.2307/2647773CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silva, Eduardo. 2017. Post-Transition Social Movements in Chile in Comparative Perspective. In Donoso and von Bülow 2017a. 249–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Somma, Nicolás. 2012. The Chilean Student Movement of 2011–2012: Challenging the Marketization of Education. Interface: A Journal For and About Social Movements 4, 2: 296–99.Google Scholar
Somma, Nicolás, and Rodrigo, Medel. 2017. Shifting Relationships Between Social Movements and Institutional Politics. In Donoso and von Bülow 2017a. 29–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Somma, Nicolás, Matías, Bargsted, Rodolfo, Disi Pavlic, and Rodrigo, M. Medel. 2020. No Water in the Oasis: The Chilean Spring of 2019–2020. Social Movement Studies, February. https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2020.1727737CrossRefGoogle Scholar
StataCorp. 2017. Stata Statistical Software: Release 15. College Station, TX: StataCorp, LP.Google Scholar
Stegmueller, Daniel. 2013. How Many Countries for Multilevel Modeling? A Comparison of Frequentist and Bayesian Approaches. American Journal of Political Science 57, 3: 748–61. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stephan, Maria J., and Erica, Chenoweth. 2008. Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict. International Security 33, 1: 7–44. https://doi.org/10.1162/isec.2008.33.1.7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Subsecretaría de Desarrollo Regional y Administrativo (SUBDERE). 2019. Sistema Nacional de Información Municipal. Santiago: Ministerio del Interior. http://datos.sinim.gov.cl/datos_municipales.phpGoogle Scholar
Tarrow, Sidney G. 2011. Struggling to Reform. In Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press. 215–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tertytchnaya, Katerina, and Tomila, Lankina. 2020. Electoral Protests and Political Attitudes Under Electoral Authoritarianism. Journal of Politics 82, 1: 285–99. https://doi.org/10.1086/705815CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toro, Sergio, Carolina, Acevedo, and Nathalie, Jaramillo-Brun. 2016. Cultura política de la democracia en Chile y en las Américas, 2014: ¿tiempo de reformas? Nashville: Vanderbilt University. https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/chile/AB2014_Chile_Country_Report_V3_Rev_W_060217.pdfGoogle Scholar
Walgrave, Stefaan, and Dieter, Rucht. 2010. Conclusion: Studying Protest in Context. In The World Says No to War: Demonstrations Against the War on Iraq, ed. Walgrave and Rucht. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 261–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallace, Sophia J., Chris, Zepeda-Millán, and Michael, Jones-Correa. 2014. Spatial and Temporal Proximity: Examining the Effects of Protests on Political Attitudes. American Journal of Political Science 58, 2: 433–48. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12060CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

Disi Pavlic Dataset

Dataset

https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataverse/laps
Link
Supplementary material: PDF

Disi Pavlic supplementary material

Disi Pavlic supplementary material

Download Disi Pavlic supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 750 KB