Attitudes toward democracy and authoritarianism before, during and after military rule. The case of Chile, 1972–2013

ABSTRACT

Studies on attitudes toward democracy in post-authoritarian settings tend to overlook support for democracy before the authoritarian experience. Since authoritarian experiences are alleged to affect attitudes towards democracy and authoritarianism, we use the case of Chile to assess the determinants in support for democracy between 1972 and 2013. Estimating marginal effects and predicted probabilities for probit models on polls conducted before and after military rule (1973–1990), we find weak support for authoritarianism before 1973 and stable support for democracy before, during and after military rule. We also review public opinion polls for the authoritarian period to show stable support for democracy. Since democracy was restored, views on the military regime have worsened. The authoritarian experience did not change the determinants of attitudes toward democracy. Those in the middle class and leftists supported democracy more strongly before, during and after military rule.

KEYWORDS:

• Democratic values
• support for democracy
• emerging democracies
• authoritarian legacy
• public opinion
• Chile

Acknowledgement

We thank the 2 anonymous reviewers and attendants at the Midwest Political Science Association Conference in 2015, International Political Science Association Conference in 2016 and Latin American Studies Association Conference in 2018 for their valuable comments. We acknowledge support from FONDECYT #1171051 and Centre for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies (COES), CONICYT/FONDAP/15130009.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Patricio Navia is a clinical professor of Liberal Studies at NYU and a full professor of political science at Universidad Diego Portales in Chile. His research focuses on elections, public opinion and legislative affairs.

Rodrigo Osorio is an assistant professor of the Public Policy Department at Universidad de Santiago de Chile. His research focuses on elections, public opinion and political economy.

ORCID

Patricio Navia http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9398-8393

Rodrigo Osorio http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7365-5054

Notes

1 Data from Centro de Estudios de la Realidad Contemporánea (CERC) www.cerc.cl.

2 Data from Hamuy polls (Navia & Osorio, 2015b).

3 Data from Latinobarómetro: www.latinobarómetro.org.

Additional information

Funding

We acknowledge support from Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico FONDECYT #1171051 and Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (COES) CONICYT/FONDAP/15130009.