Charlemos is a new initiative that creates space for political scientists and other academics to discuss the critical social and political challenges facing Latin America today--including democratic backsliding, economic inequality, racial injustice, gender inequities, and a host of other issues--via a virtual platform.
The Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Pittsburgh and the Political Institutions and Processes Section of LASA present the fourth talk in the series. Javier Corrales (Amherst College) will moderate a conversation with Amy Erica Smith (Iowa State University) and Taylor C. Boas (Boston University) on "Religion, Sexuality Politics, and Voting Behavior in Latin America". The talk will be based on a paper by the same title that was written for the 2020 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association. See the abstract below:
Same-sex marriage, abortion, and related sexuality politics issues have become major topics of debate in a number of Latin American countries, as liberalizing social trends and policy initiatives meet with stark opposition from Christian conservatives. Yet existing research has argued that attitudes on these issues matter little for voting behavior in the region. In this paper we argue that the degree to which opinions on sexuality politics are predictive of the vote depends on the degree to which a) candidates differ in their stances, and b) the issue has been politicized via campaigns or legislative battles. When these conditions are met, as they have been during several recent elections, attitudes on sexual politics can be as or more influential than traditional determinants of voting behavior, such as policies toward crime or the economy. We test this argument using a conjoint experiment conducted in Brazil, Chile, and Peru and multilevel analysis of four waves of the AmericasBarometer and three waves of the Latinobarómetro in 15 countries.
Registration is required: tinyurl.com/y4e54x4h
