Dual Mobilization Strategies: How the Latin American Left Copes with Divided Electorates

The constraints on the Latin American left to offer programs distinct from those of their right-wing competitors have been substantially alleviated in the past decade. As a result, most left-wing parties have shifted to welfarist policies, although there are considerable differences between radical and moderate left-wing parties. Furthermore, where the left has governed during the time of the market-liberal Washington Consensus, as in Argentina and Mexico, it has often implemented market-friendly strategies. As a result, it has cultivated new middle-class constituencies skeptical of market intervention. In Argentina the Peronist party has been able to perform this shift without alienating its lower-class constituency by adopting a “dual mobilization strategy”: While some social groups are mobilized by ways of market-friendly policy appeals, segments vulnerable to market risks are rallied by means of clientelistic inducements. Interestingly, this hypothesis so far has only been assessed in qualitative terms, and never tested at the individual level. Furthermore, I compare these cases with countries where the left was in opposition during the neoliberal phase, and I test the hypothesis based on the Venezuelan case that parties belonging to the radical or populist left group pursue a radically simplified form of the dual mobilization strategy.

I combine data on party positions from the Survey of Latin American Legislators surveys with mass-level survey data to measure how adequately parties represent different groups of voters within their electorate. I measure the congruence between party positions and the preferences of social groups in eight countries that feature significant left-wing parties.