El monstruo bajo la cama: el chavismo como un tema divisorio en América Latina

Abstract

There is a broad array of literature analyzing the interaction between domestic and foreign policy. In this regard, we have recently seen that strategic politicians use divisive foreign leaders as a tool to take advantage of in domestic politics. Nevertheless, the use of these leaders in domestic campaigns-and particularly the reasons why this occurs-has not received much attention in academia. In this paper, we attempt to approach this topic by identifying when conditions are ripe for this strategic use of foreign leaders in domestic politics. More specifically, we argue that the image of foreign leaders can be used when they present the conditions to become a wedge issue. We explore this question by using survey data on views of Chávez across Latin America together with political and economic indicators between 2005 and 2011. We find that perceptions of Chavismo are divisive in countries in which the incumbent government is ruled by a left-wing administration. Similarly, we show that, in those countries, Chavismo has all the conditions to become a wedge issue, as opponents have a homogeneously negative perception of that political movement, while government supporters are divided in their views of Chavismo.

Evaluaciones de Lula y Dilma en las élites latinoamericanas: de la transversalidad ideológica a la división

“…La imagen pública de líderes políticos o candidatos está condicionada por la ideología o la adscripción partidaria (Huckfeldt, Mondak, Craw y Méndez, 2005), pero también por sus atributos personales (Rico, 2002). América Latina no es ajena a esta corriente y, ciertamente, el uso estratégico de las opiniones sobre líderes extranjeros en la política interna no es poco común en la región, como lo muestra el caso del chavismo (Sagarzazu y Mouron, 2020). Existe una amplia variedad de estudios recientes sobre liderazgo presidencial que centran su interés, entre otras cuestiones, en los atributos de la personalidad de los presidentes, sus discursos, sus índices de aprobación y la proyección de estos líderes políticos entre la ciudadanía (Huckfeldt, Mondak, Craw y Méndez, 2005;Burns, 2010;Kenski y Jamieson 2010;Ono y Burden 2019).…”