La opinión pública y la democracia peruana en la mirada del Barómetro de las Américas

Abstract

This article discusses the evolution of citizen support for democracy as an ideal system of government, as well as their attitudes towards some anti-democratic actions. Furthermore, it documents the variations in the level of citizen satisfaction with the performance of democracy in Peru. These attitudes are analyzed using data from the AmericasBarometer surveys. The most important findings are twofold. The first finding shows that the support for the idea of democracy is low in Peru compared to the regional average; furthermore, this support has fallen somewhat since 2012. Likewise, citizen rejection of anti-democratic actions such as military coups and the dissolution of Congress by the president is relatively low when compared with other Latin American countries. The second finding is that there is a consistent and significant drop in the satisfaction level with the functioning of democracy. We argue that this political discontent is partially caused by the crisis of representation and state failures, especially those related to citizen insecurity and corruption.