Andrés Mejía Acosta, Informal Coalitions and Policymaking in Latin America: Ecuador in Comparative Perspective. New York: Routledge, 2009. Figures, tables, acronyms, bibliography, index, 170 pp.; hardcover $125, e-book $113.Karem Roitman, Race, Ethnicity, and Power in Ecuador: The Manipulation of Mestizaje. Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2009. Tables, figures, appendix, bibliography, index, 319 pp.; hardcover $75.

2011 ◽  
Vol 53 (03) ◽  
pp. 182-185
Author(s):  
Roberta Rice
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Race Ethnicity

Populism and Polarization in Comparative Perspective: Constitutive, Spatial and Institutional Dimensions

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Kenneth M. Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Political Competition ◽  
Electoral Competition ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Consistent Effect ◽  
The Us ◽  
Issue Dimensions

Abstract Polarization may be the most consistent effect of populism, as it is integral to the logic of constructing populist subjects. This article distinguishes between constitutive, spatial and institutional dimensions of polarization, adopting a cross-regional comparative perspective on different subtypes of populism in Europe, Latin America and the US. It explains why populism typically arises in contexts of low political polarization (the US being a major, if partial, outlier), but has the effect of sharply increasing polarization by constructing an anti-establishment political frontier, politicizing new policy or issue dimensions, and contesting democracy's institutional and procedural norms. Populism places new issues on the political agenda and realigns partisan and electoral competition along new programmatic divides or political cleavages. Its polarizing effects, however, raise the stakes of political competition and intensify conflict over the control of key institutional sites.

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