Distrusting Democrats and Political Participation in New Democracies: Lessons from Chile

Distrusting democrats seek accountability and advocate reform in established democracies. Do they behave similarly in new democracies? Using AmericasBarometer survey data, cluster analysis identifies five profiles of democratic support in Chile: democrat, delegative, fair-weather, illiberal, and autocrat. Chilean distrusting democrats are more active in protest politics but less active in electoral politics than other Chileans, especially fair-weather democrats. The support profiles better predict these behaviors than the classic Linzian and Churchillian measures of democratic support. Thus, distrusting democrats in Chile only partially emulate their counterparts in established democracies, suggesting citizen-led democratic reforms in new democracies could be far more challenging. Keyword