This book challenges the conventional wisdom that policy performance is the most important determinant of regime support. It does so by focusing on two countries where performance and support do not match. Chile is the economic envy of every country in Latin America, yet support has been surprisingly anemic. By contrast, Venezuela managed to maintain extremely high levels of support during the reign of Hugo Chavez despite severe failures of governance. Resolution of these paradoxes requires turning away from policy decisions and focusing instead on how those decisions are made. Taking...

This book resolves one of Latin America's must difficult public opinion puzzles: the discrepancy between policy performance and regime support in Chile and Venezuela. Using insights drawn from democratic theory and social psychology, it shows that participation inflated support in Venezuela, while inhibiting it in Chile.