Elections in Latin America

This book provides an overview of elections throughout Latin America, including formal electoral institutions, informal practices, and the behavior of voters and candidates. Through a wide-ranging synthesis of scholarly literature and primary sources, it offers a descriptive and analytical look at how elections in Latin America work, from the legal rules of the game to the final counting of the votes. It also shows how electoral institutions and practices vary across countries, and how elections can be instruments of both democracy and autocracy.

Organized thematically and written in accessible prose, the book draws on electoral laws, election observer reports, news accounts, and cutting-edge scholarly work to produce a highly readable narrative. With chapters covering electoral integrity, electoral systems for presidential and legislative elections, candidacies, political parties, campaigning and campaign finance, and voter behavior, this book offers a broad overview of electoral politics throughout Latin America. The text provides even-handed discussion of engaging themes such as gender quotas, vote buying, the role of social media in campaigns, and corruption in campaign finance.

To enhance the book’s readability and pedagogical value, each chapter provides clear examples from countries across Latin America. Nearly every chapter also includes one or more text-box case studies that explore a theme from the chapter in more detail. Readers will thus find a clearly presented overview of elections from Mexico to Argentina that is informed by a wide body of political science scholarship and complemented with illustrative examples, case studies, and data. With its clear exposition and timely synthesis of the maturing scholarly field of Latin American elections, this is a volume that is sure to appeal to both students new to the study of Latin American politics and experienced scholars.