Sixty-five percent of Guyanese would be willing to trade away elections for material guarantees, a new survey report has found.
The ‘Who Is Willing to Trade Away Elections for Material Guarantees’ report is part of the Vanderbilt University and Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) Lab’s Insights series. The report issued on September 13 evaluated a country, sociodemographic, and political predictors of an individual’s willingness to trade elections for material guarantees of basic income and services. The report utilizes responses from the 2021 round of LAPOP’s AmericasBarometer survey.
According to the report, 14,651 survey participants from 22 countries across the Americas answered the question: Which political system seems best for (country): a system that guarantees access to a basic income and services for all citizens, even if the authorities cannot be elected, or to be able to vote to elect the authorities, even if some people do not have access to a basic income and services?
In Latin America and the Caribbean region, more than half of the participants indicated that they are willing to trade away elections. “In 17 out of 22 countries, more than 50% of adults prefer a system that guarantees material assistance over one that guarantees elections,” states the report.
Guyana, Ecuador and Jamaica have the highest percentage of individuals willing to trade elections, with 65 percent of persons in each of those country saying they prefer material guarantees.
“Most of the seven countries with the highest percentage of individuals willing to trade away elections- as well as the three countries with the lowest percentage of individuals willing to trade away elections- feature rather competitive elections relative to the region—that is, despite falling on opposite ends. These countries are generally led by a head of government and national legislature selected through free and fair elections, and generally feature robust electoral laws and election management bodies, the report noted.
Education, Wealth, and Age are among the facts that predict commitment to elections, according to the report.
“The most substantial correlation is between age and willingness to trade elections. The correlation is negative, as expected: those in the oldest of the six age cohorts are 15 percentage points less likely to be willing to trade away elections compared to the youngest age group,” said the report.
Wealth and Education, however, do play their part, says the report, which said that those in the highest of the five wealth categories are 6 percentage points less likely to be willing to trade elections, compared to the lowest wealth category, and those with the highest level of education (tertiary, university) are predicted to be 11 percentage points less likely to be willing to trade elections, compared to those who have primary or no education.
“In the LAC region, young people may feel disconnected from past autocratic shortcomings but have first-hand experience observing issues faced under developing democratic regimes, the report notes.
As a conclusion, the report stated that the findings emphasize the importance of ensuring election integrity, which is important on its own, but also for its spillover into citizens’ commitment to elections. It also suggests that commitment to elections is likely to be greater to the extent countries invest in robust civic education that informs citizens about past experiences with authoritarianism and strengthens support for democratic principles.
This Insights report is made possible by the support of the American People through the United States Agency for Inter-national Development (USAID) and Vanderbilt University. The contents of this Insights report are the sole responsibility of its author and LAPOP and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, the United States Government or any other supporting organization.
