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The Legitimacy Puzzle in Latin America: Political Support and Democracy in Eight Nations by
John A. Booth and Mitchell A. Seligson
Review by: Matthew Singer
Source: Latin American Politics and Society, Vol. 51, No. 3 (Fall, 2009), pp. 174-178
Published by: Distributed by on behalf of the Wiley Center for Latin American Studies at the
University of Miami
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174 LATIN AMERICAN POLITICS AND SOCIETY
51: 3
granting growing autonomy
to the schools. It is not clear from the over
all discussion whether one
process
resulted in better outcomes than the
other.
Furthermore,
the case studies do not raise an
important point
for
discussion: is there a
good
match between the
unique
scenarios of each
state and the current
reorganization pattern?
This would seem
impor
tant,
as the series to which this book
belongs
aims to "learn from the
lessons of other societies."
This volume "invites" readers to evaluate the educational
develop
ments
independently.
This is also
likely
to be the reason for the authors'
decision not to include a
comprehensive comparison chapter.
The book
definitely provides
the information and detailed overview for each
country
to conduct such review. Given the lack of tools for cross-coun
try
evaluation
("crosswalk")
of the
challenges
and factors associated
with educational
system development, however,
the book falls short of
becoming
a useful tool for
policy-learning purposes.
A
closing chapter by
the
editors, discussing
the
comparative points
of
view,
would have been
appropriate.
Such
a
chapter
should
provide
the reader the
ability
to mark the
comparison points
across all case stud
ies,
in terms of the foundations of the educational
system
in the colo
nial
area,
the
exponential growth
and
quest
for
identity
in the
post
colonial
period,
and the current
challenges
in centralization and
decentralization of the modern educational
system.
It would have
allowed readers to
expand
the use of this
book,
and the entire series.
Erez Lenchner
Columbia
University
John
A. Booth and Mitchell A.
Seligson,
The
Legitimacy
Puzzle in Latin
America: Political
Support
and
Democracy
in
Eight
Nations. Cam
bridge: Cambridge University Press,
2009-
Figures, tables, appen
dixes,
bibliography,
index, 376
pp.;
hardcover
$80, paperback
$24.99,
e-book
$20.
It has
long
been an
accepted truism,
or
perhaps
even a
tautology,
that
democracy
needs to be
perceived
as
legitimate
to survive.
However,
this
simple hypothesis
leaves
many open questions.
What elements of a
regime
do
people
have
opinions
about?
Why
do some citizens
perceive
democracy
as
legitimate
when others do not? Does a belief that
a
regime
is
illegitimate
lead citizens to withdraw from
politics
or to endorse
extralegal
forms of unconventional
political
action?
To answer these
questions, John
Booth and Mitchell
Seligson
have
compiled
a remarkable set of
survey
data from
eight
Latin American
countries: the six
Spanish-speaking
Central American countries
plus
Mexico and Colombia. These data were
compiled
as
part
of the 2004
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BOOK REVIEWS 175
AmericasBarometer under the direction of the Latin American Public
Opinion Project
(LAPOP).
More
important
than the
geographic scope
of
the
data, however,
is the use of
multiple
indicators to measure each of
the
ways
that citizens can evaluate their
country
(instead
of a
single
measure for each
dimension);
the indicators themselves draw on the
large
literature on
legitimacy
in established democracies. More than
any
prior study,
these data are clear on what
they
measure and how con
cepts
combine and interact.
The book has three main
empirical
sections. In
chapter 2,
the
authors
demonstrate, using
both
exploratory
and
confirmatory
factor
analysis,
that citizen attitudes about the
regime
are multidimensional.
Starting
with Easton's distinction between diffuse and
specific support
(A
Systems Analysis of
Political
Life,
1965)
and its
subsequent
extensions
by
Norris
(Critical
Citizens: Global
Support for
Democratic
Government,
1999)
and Dalton
(Democratic
Challenges,
Democratic Choices: The Ero
sion
of
Political
Support
in Advanced Industrial
Democracies, 2004),
they
show that the broad
concept
of
legitimacy
can be divided into
sup
port
for the
political community
or nation as a
whole,
beliefs in core
principles
of democratic
participation, positive
evaluations of economic
outcomes under
democracy,
trust of
specific government institutions,
confidence in local
government,
and
positive
evaluations of
policy
actions taken
by
the
government.
This multidimensional
profile
is simi
lar to
patterns
identified in Western
Europe
and the United
States, sug
gesting
a
general pattern
in how citizens relate to
democracy.
A
key
addition is the role of local
government
as a source of democratic
legit
imacy,
a factor that has received little attention in the extant literature.
A
key finding
from Latin
America, however,
is that overall levels of
support
are lower than in more established democracies.
Moreover, sup
port
for the national
community
and democratic
principles
is
significantly
higher
than
support
for
political
actors,
trust in
institutions,
or confidence
in the
ability
of the
regime
to deliver economic benefits. This difference
is
important
because it is evaluations of
proximate governance
outcomes
that most
strongly shape
citizen attitudes and behaviors.
Chapter
4
analyzes
the sources of each form of
legitimacy.
Some
variables
(e.g., interpersonal
trust,
winning elections,
avoiding
crime
and
corruption)
are
positively
correlated with all forms of
legitimacy.
Education and
political sophistication,
in
contrast,
are
positively
associ
ated with
support
for democratic
principles,
but lead to dissatisfaction
with how democratic institutions and actors
currently
function. While
the limited number of countries included in the
study
makes it difficult
to isolate national-level
factors,
a
history
of
democracy
is associated with
stronger support
for abstract democratic
principles,
while effective
gov
ernance and economic
growth strongly
enhance the
legitimacy
of
gov
ernment institutions and actors.
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176 LATIN AMERICAN POLITICS AND SOCIETY
51: 3
Chapters
5
through
7 examine how democratic
legitimacy
affects
citizens' attitudes and behaviors. As with much of the extant
literature,
the authors document that
higher
levels of
system support
are associ
ated with
greater
resistance to the overthrow of
democracy, support
for
coups during
socioeconomic or
political crises,
and
taking
the law into
one's own hands
(chapter
6).
Citizens who view the
system
as
legiti
mate and
support democracy's principles
are also more
likely
to be sat
isfied with the state of
democracy
in their
country (chapter
7).
Low
levels of
political legitimacy
thus
potentially
raise demands for
political
change
and lead citizens to
accept
nondemocratic
procedures
for solv
ing problems.
Dissatisfied citizens do
not, however,
withdraw from democratic
politics
or restrict their
political
behavior to
protesting,
because there is
a curvilinear
relationship
between
legitimacy
and
participation (chapter
5).
Citizens who
perceive
the
regime
as
legitimate
are
very
likely
to
par
ticipate
in
campaigns,
contact
public officials,
work on
community
problems,
and
protest
to make their voices heard. Yet dissatisfied citi
zens also
engage
in the same conventional forms of
political
behavior
at
high
levels
(in
addition to
engaging
in
protests), perhaps
with the
intention of
improving
the
political system
with which
they
are dissatis
fied. The continued
engagement
of these
groups
with
democracy's
insti
tutions
signals
that Latin America's citizens continue to
perceive
demo
cratic methods as a
legitimate
and effective tool of
political
influence
even when
they
are dissatisfied with other elements of the
regime.
An
interesting pattern
across the various
chapters
is that not all
forms of
political support
have the same
impact.
Evaluations of eco
nomic outcomes have the most consistent effect on
participation
and
attitudes.
Moreover,
while five out of the six forms of
legitimacy
are
pos
itively
correlated with satisfaction with the current state of
democracy
in
a
country,
the more
proximate
evaluations of economic outcomes and
the
performance
of democratic institutions and actors have a
larger
effect on how citizens view
democracy
than the more distal
factors,
such
as views of the national
community
or local
government.
Taken
together,
these
findings suggest
that the
region's
democracies still
strongly depend
on their short-term
ability
to deliver economic benefits
and
good governance
if
they
are to maintain their
legitimacy.
The
analysis
raises several
questions
that merit further discussion.
The authors see the continued
participation
of
disgruntled
citizens in the
system
as a
positive
outcome: "low
legitimacy may
lead some individu
als to
participate
within
channels,
thus
. . .
reinforcing
and
strengthen
ing
democratic institutions"
(257).
However,
while the mode of
partici
pation
chosen
by
dissatisfied
groups
is
democratic,
a
question
the book
leaves unanswered is whether the
message
of their
participation
is dem
ocratic. The data show that low levels of
legitimacy
are associated with
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BOOK REVIEWS 177
increased tolerance for undemocratic methods of
governance.
Thus one
can
imagine
that individuals who
perceive
the current
regime
as
illegit
imate and unable to meet their needs
may
be
likely
to use the electoral
tools, lobbying
institutions,
and
public protests
available to them to
empower
undemocratic
political
actors inside and outside of the
regime.
Dissatisfied individuals can choose to reinforce and
repair democracy
or
dismantle it. Further
attention, then,
must be
given
not
only
to the levels
of
participation
but to the forms that
participation
takes: the kinds of
candidates citizens volunteer for and vote
for,
the kinds of
groups
that
citizens
join,
and the
message
of
protests
that citizens
participate
in.
A second
question,
addressed
briefly
in the
conclusion,
is how the
various forms of
legitimacy
interact. The authors
present
some evidence
that
negative
attitudes toward
democracy
are
strongest among
those cit
izens who are
"triply
dissatisfied" with
democracy's
norms,
institutional
performance,
and economic outcomes.
However,
I am more interested
in whether there are attitudinal and behavioral differences within the set
of individuals who are dissatisfied with
practices
and outcomes in their
country
at the current time but who differ in their commitment to
democracy
in the abstract. A similar
question
is whether low levels of
government legitimacy
have the same
impact
on citizens from different
educational
backgrounds,
levels of
partisan commitment,
and socioeco
nomic situations. In both
cases, my worry
is that
falling
levels of dem
ocratic
legitimacy
will have the
largest
effect
on
groups
who are ambiva
lent about democratic
principles,
unattached to
existing partisan
structures,
less
educated,
and more
desperate
for
security
from
poverty
and violence.
This book will serve as a rich resource for scholars interested in the
current state of
democracy
in Latin America. The results both confirm
and extend the theoretical work that has been done on established
democracies
by showing
that democratic
legitimacy
is a multidimen
sional
concept. However,
by developing
and
testing
theories about
legit
imacy's importance
in a
region
where
government legitimacy
is lower
and
democracy
has less
history,
the authors have been able to better
isolate the
consequences
of
declining legitimacy
and to
provide
multi
ple
new
insights
into how
legitimacy
levels affect
political
behavior.
In addition to the central
findings
on
legitimacy's
causes and con
sequences,
scholars interested in other
political
and social variables will
be drawn to the
analyses
of how these variables affect citizen attitudes
and actions. I
predict
that
multiple productive
lines of research will
emerge
from the
questions
this book raises. Given the continued
polit
ical
polarization
and economic deterioration of
many
countries in the
region
since the data were
compiled
in 2004
(a
period
of relative sta
bility),
I look forward to
subsequent
work from the
larger survey proj
ect
extending
the
analysis geographically
and
temporally
to
explore
the
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178 LATIN AMERICAN POLITICS AND SOCIETY
51: 3
consequences
of these
changes
for both
patterns
of attitudes and
chang
ing political alignments
across the
region.
Matthew
Singer
University
of Connecticut
Vicente
Palermo,
Sal en las heridas. Las Malvinas en la cultura
argentina contempor?nea.
Buenos Aires: Editorial
Sudamericana,
2007.
Bibliography,
480
pp.; paperback.
This is not
simply
one more
book about the Malvinas/Falklands
question
(the
long dispute
between
Argentina
and the United
Kingdom
about sov
ereignty
over some
tiny
islands in the South Atlantic
Ocean).
It
is,
instead,
a
very
ambitious intellectual exercise to unveil the intimate con
nection between Malvinas as a cause and
Argentine
nationalism. Palermo
argues
that Malvinas is
mainly
a
huge
issue that
Argentines
cannot
solve,
a
problem
that often borderlines with a trauma
they
cannot
"digest"
and
touches on
longstanding identity questions
that condition the
way
they
relate with the rest of the world. In other
words,
the author takes Malv
inas out of the realm of international conflicts and
foreign policy
to
place
it within a
complex analysis
of
Argentine political
culture.
Palermo
masterfully
shows the blend of
beliefs, values,
social atti
tudes,
prejudices, images, passions,
and
symbols
in the formation of
national
identity.
His
passionate
and humorous account of that historical
blending process
aims at
explaining why
and how Malvinas as a cause
has become one of the
imaginary prisons
in which
Argentines
live. The
nearly five-hundred-page
volume
explores
all sorts of
circumstances,
ideas,
policies,
and
political developments
that have been associated
pos
itively
and
negatively
with that
process
over the last
century
and a
half.
From an academic
point
of
view,
the main contribution of this book
is the
way
it ties
together
the
nation-building process, nationalism,
and
political
culture. The scarce and uneven literature on
Argentine foreign
policy
will
certainly
benefit from the
enlightening analysis
of that inter
relationship.
In
addition,
this volume offers a
unique compilation
of bib
liographic
and other sources on the
subject.
The author draws on an
overwhelming
amount of information and testimonies
coming
from aca
demic
publications, newspapers
and other media
reports, government
documents, weblogs,
and other sources. He
incorporates
those
inputs
throughout
the text to
support
a
thoughtful
and
provocative analysis pre
sented in an
essay
format. At times the text turns into a
personal dialogue
between the author and the reader. As in all his
writings,
Palermo uses
the fine touch of an erudite scholar who is well versed not
only
in soci
ology
and
political
science but also in
literature, history,
and fine arts.
Moreover,
he colors the
analysis
with the
slang,
anecdotal
insights,
and references to
stereotypes
and collective
myths
that are so familiar
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