Right-wing authoritarian populism?

Anti-elitism, pluralism, and voting in presidential elections in American democracies

Abstract

The coming to power of rulers with populist-authoritarian characteristics is only possible based on the support of voters identified with their speeches and practices. Therefore, in this article, we investigate the impact of attitudes towards political elites, immigrants and minorities on the electoral choice for president in Brazil (2018), Chile (2017), Costa Rica (2018), Uruguay (2019), and the United States (2016). Post-election public opinion data from Module 5 of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) were used. The variables were operationalized from the construction of anti-elitism and pluralism scales, and the perception of corruption was adopted as part of the rejection phenomenon of political elites. The results show that (anti)pluralism was a better predictor of voting in these elections than anti-elitism and corruption, suggesting that the dispute between more and less liberal-progressive values was at the heart of the political debate in all countries studied.