ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book is about voting behavior, intermediation processes, citizen views of democracy and the role of socio political values in a wide array of countries covered by the Comparative National Elections Project (CNEP). Democracy is an element in the belief systems of Latin American publics, and its meaning and centrality vary depending on the individuals' levels of information and sophistication'. Political intermediation is, precisely, the core concept that underlies the task and analysis of the various authors of this book too. Finally, the impact of social cleavages varies widely in its impact on the vote. Modernization is expected to diminish the importance of structural cleavages and give more centrality to the articulation of values into ideological political orientations. Also the data provide some support for the modernization hypothesis, particularly with regard to the decline of socioeconomic class as a determinant of the vote.
