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How does the political discourse of populist leaders affect citizens’ orientations towards the democracy? Latin America offers some of the most representative cases of populism, as well as significant negative cases, where populism has not occurred. The main goal is to identify differences between the governing styles of two Latin American leaders in order to provide clues about links between populism and political culture of their citizens. I analyze the content of the political discourses of two presidents in Latin America: Rafael Correa and Jose Mujica. The former is considered a case of a populist regime, while the latter considered is a case of the non-occurrence of populism. Changes in citizens’ attitudes and orientations towards democracy could reveal the impact of populist frames that leaders develop in their political discourses.