Exploring the edges of clientelism: ideology, ethnicity, and partisanship in Belize

ABSTRACT

Studies focusing on Belize reveal that clientelism is the glue that makes the party system stick. We explore whether ideology and ethnicity account for partisanship within that deeply clientelist setting. We use four AmericasBarometer survey waves by the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) to study the individual-level correlates of partisan attachments with the People’s United Party (PUP) and United Democratic Party (UDP). Using binary and multinomial probit maximum likelihood estimators, we find that ethnicity correlates to partisanship with the PUP, and ideology correlates to partisanship with the UDP. The robustness checks, which focus on declared vote choices in previous national elections, corroborate our findings. The Belizean case shows how clientelist parties can develop alternative support sources and that these can vary substantially.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethnicity
• ideology
• political parties
• party systems
• Belize
• Latin America

Acknowledgement

We thank the editor and the two anonymous referees for their helpful comments. We also thank the panel participants on Parties, Partisanship, and Governance in Latin America at the 80th Annual Midwest Political Science Association Conference and the X Congreso WAPOR Latinoamérica participants 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 Florida Atlantic University. 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.