Legitimacy and Political Participation in Eight Latin American Nations

Much research on political legitimacy has reported a widespread decline in support for institutions in industrial democracies. Despite falling legitimacy there have been no failures of such regimes, contrary to the expectation that participation by disgruntled citizens might destabilize regimes with low popular support. The literature’s conventional hypotheses are linear: declining legitimacy should reduce conventional participation and raise protest behavior. We suggest an alternative hypothesis of a U-shaped relationship: in democracies citizens with both low and high legitimacy will participate at high levels. Citizens may also participate in alternative arenas outside conventional national-system channels. We employ 2004 survey data on 12,000 respondents collected by the Latin American Public Opinion Project. We examine six modes of legitimacy in eight Latin American nations where legitimacy norms vary widely and some on dimensions citizens’ evaluations are low. We explore the legitimacy dimensions’ effects on six modes of political participation. We find that the standard linear hypotheses are rarely confirmed. Rather, the predominant legitimacyparticipation relationship is U-shaped. We conclude that in democracies citizens with low support norms can and do work for change within the system through elections and campaigns. They also seek alternative arenas for participation in civil society, community, or local government. These activities do not threaten political system stability.