ABSTRACT

Populism and nationalism are contested concepts. Each has generated deep scholarly literatures in Latin American politics. This chapter analyzes populist and nationalist attitudes in the contemporary mass political cultures of Latin America. Following Mudde (2004), populism is here conceptualized as a set of attitudes, a worldview, or “thin-centered ideology” which broadly views politics as a struggle between “the pure people” and “the corrupt elite.” Analyzing 2012 cross-national survey data from 18 Latin American countries, this chapter first explores the dimensionality of populism and nationalism, respectively, using factor analysis to identify specific attitudes and beliefs indicating populist and nationalist worldviews among individuals in the region – and, crucially, to discern where the two concepts might intersect. It then tests a series of hypotheses to assess the strengths and limitations of long-standing demographic and socioeconomic theories of populism and nationalism at the individual level. Finally, the chapter briefly explores cross-national variations among these findings – and reflects on what country-level differences in the distrust of political elites (arguably a defining feature of populism) might mean for nationalism and national political cultures across Latin America.