Indigenous Voices in Latin America Examining Ethnic Populist Parties and External Political Efficacy
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2024-07-03
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en
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During the early twenty-first century, a ‘pink tide’ emerged through Latin American countries, in which left-wing populism gained electoral success. The 2005 electoral victory of Evo Morales in Bolivia and his MAS-IPSP party, representing various indigenous communities as well as obtaining votes from other ethnic groups, gained scholarly attention. In Ecuador, a similar indigenous-based party (MUPP) gained electoral success and represent the interests of the indigenous population on the national level. These indigenous-based parties utilized populist rhetoric where a corrupt elite opposes the pure people. However, they incorporated multiple ethnicities in their conception of the pure people, forging inter-ethnic bonds. This thesis looks at the effect these ethnic populist parties have on the representation of indigenous people, especially how indigenous people evaluate the responsiveness of politicians to their demands. Multilevel models assess the difference in external political efficacy between ethnic groups in 15 Latin American countries. The results show that indigenous people, on average, have a higher sense of external political efficacy compared to other ethnic groups such as white and mestizo. Also, the cross-level interaction shows that in countries where ethnic populist parties are present, the external political efficacy of indigenous people is higher compared to indigenous individuals in countries without an ethnic populist party present. However, the effect is not moderated by voting for the ethnic populist party; nor by the left/right orientation of the individual. Therefore the causal mechanisms remains to be uncovered. This analysis underlines the importance of descriptive representation of indigenous people in Latin America.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen