Mirroring societal shifts: revisiting the ethno-racial, ethno-religious, and ideological foundations of Guyana’s party system

ABSTRACT

While scholars have relied on societal cleavages to explain the origins and evolution of party systems in Western democracies, drawing that link in Latin America and the Caribbean has been more challenging. Guyana is an exception to the norm. Its party system has aligned ethnically since independence in the 1960s. The People’s National Congress mostly appeals to the Afro-Guyanese, and the People’s Progressive Party largely draws support from the Indo-Guyanese. However, in recent decades, the country has experienced relevant demographic shifts that force a reconsideration of the predominance of ethno-racial traits as fuelling inter-party competition. We use the AmericasBarometer to examine the individual-level ethno-racial, ethno-religious, and ideological correlates of partisanship from 2010 to 2016. The results indicate that ethno-racial divisions have lost salience as ethno-religious features have become a more prevalent source of partisan attachments. We conclude that the correlates of partisanship in Guyana mirror its broader socio-demographic transformation.

KEYWORDS:

• Partisanship
• ethnicity
• religion
• cleavages
• Caribbean
• Latin America

Acknowledgements

We thank the editor, Andrew Wyatt, and the two anonymous referees for their helpful comments. We also thank Will Freeman, David Plotke, and the participants at the 4th The Public and Democracy in the Americas conference, coordinated by the LAPOP Lab at Vanderbilt University, for their feedback. Any errors that remain are the authors’ sole responsibility.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lucas Perelló

Lucas Perelló is an assistant professor of political science at Marist College. His research focuses on democracy, elections, political parties, and public opinion in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Patricio Navia

Patricio Navia is a clinical professor of Liberal Studies at New York University and a professor of Political Science at Universidad Diego Portales in Chile. He has written extensively on electoral rules, political parties, public opinion, and legislative affairs in Chile and other Latin American countries.