Determinants of the Left Vote in Latin America.

The recent literature on political parties in Latin America has largely ignored one of the most fundamental aspects of party systems: their ideological structure. This study seeks to help fill that gap by examining the determinants of electoral support for left wing parties in Latin America since the return to democracy in the region. The analysis weighs the merits of three different approaches for explaining the electoral performance of the Latin American left: economic performance; socio-economic factors; and institutional variables. It finds that institutional factors play the most important role in shaping support for the left. The Latin American left tends to be stronger where the degree of union organization is greater, where party systems are younger and less-institutionalized, and where the historical level of civil and political liberties is higher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]