Award Information
Neoliberal presidential candidates in Latin America continue to enjoy success at the polls on election day despite the apparent toll that such policies have taken on the region's poor and working classes. Why is this occurring? Why do neoliberal programs continue to receive support in public opinion polls? What are these new neoliberal voting coalitions, why do they so often constitute a majority, and why have they formed? While existing theories of voting behavior are useful, they suffer a lack of rigorous empirical evidence and are limited in explaining much of the variation both cross-nationally and sub-nationally. My focus will be on identifying which theories work for different societal groups. To answer these research questions, I propose studying the Brazilian and Mexican cases using survey research, in-depth interviews and experiments.