Title: Populism in Latin America: a double interview – POP
Headings: Populism in Latin America: a double interview
Populism in Latin America: a double interview
Content: For example, Marco Enriquez Ominami’s speeches score a 1, on a 0-2 scale, and he received a bit more than 10% of the votes. That is about as much as observed in Geert Wilders’ PVV manifesto, who received a very similar vote-share in the 2012 Dutch elections. So, to give some perspective, a typical case of “absence of populism” in Latin America has as much success of populism as a typical case of successful populism in Europe. SR: A first answer would be that the institutional context in these two countries plays against the likely rise of populism to power. Although both countries have presidential systems of government, they combine this institutional feature with an electoral system that contributed to the development of highly fragmented party systems, which on the other hand induces political parties to form coalitions in Congress. In Chile, the binomial electoral system led to the development of two stable, pre-electoral party coalitions that compete for power. In Brazil, the candidate-centered electoral system led to the development of more flexible pre- and post-electoral coalitions supporting different presidential candidates. However, this feature did not entirely preclude the rise of populism to power in Brazil, as the example of Fernando Collor de Mello in the beginning of the 1990s shows. Staying in power, on the other hand, may be more difficult for populists especially in more fragmented contexts.