A system in descent in the face of the indifference and dissatisfaction of the people

Pre-democracy and post-democracy. Distrust and happiness Physical bread and digital hunger. Algorithmic economy and ancestral inequality. Activism and indifference. Latin America appears as a land of immense contrasts at a time when new technologies are having a major impact on all aspects of regional integration. When the voice of Latin Americans expresses itself on the quality of democracy, levels of deterioration are not new, but they deepen. To better understand them, the 2018 Latinobarómetro survey reveals the results of an in-depth reflection on public policies. There is not a single factor of exclusion that explains the causal relationships, but there is a universe of perceptions that it is necessary to study.

In 2018, support for democracy in the region recorded the lowest value since 2001; Moreover, indifference registers its greatest value in the series. Only 48% say they prefer democracy to any other form of government, equal in value to 2001. Support has been steadily decreasing since 2010 (61% support); a more or less significant decline in all the countries of the region.

• Only 24% are satisfied with the functioning of democracy in their country.
• In 2018, 77% of Latin Americans believe that your country is stagnant (49%) or late (28%). This compares with a value of 58% in 2010. This is the lowest figure recorded in the past quarter century.
• The decline is not due to an increase in explicit support for authoritarianism – the proportion that justifies authoritarianism under certain circumstances is the same as in 2010 (15%) – but with increased indifference, 28% of Latin Americans believe that a democratic regime is identical to an undemocratic regime, compared to 16% in 2010. [19659007] The social fall
  
  • The dissatisfaction with democracy is closely linked to the feeling of Latin Americans about the future of the economy and their personal-family situation: 83% of People who think that the country's economy or personal situation worsening next year is dissatisfied with democracy.
  • 63% of people with higher education support democracy. Support is only 40% for people with basic education. It varies between 30% for people with very low socio-economic status and 54% for those with very high socio-economic status.
  • In turn, people who perceive an increase in corruption over the past year and those who are. People very concerned about being victims of a crime are also, on average, more dissatisfied with democracy, respectively 76% and 77%.

  The network of networks
  

  The digital disturbance is between us. The penetration of the smartphone (47%) is higher than that of hot water by pipe (36%). 32% of Latin Americans who lack food have a smartphone; among young people aged 18 to 25, this percentage rises to 44%. 80% of those who often eat only one meal a day have a cell phone. If mobile technology is less sophisticated, the data is just as overwhelming: 89% of adults have a mobile phone, compared to only 91% who have drinking water and 96% who eat one meal a day. In other words, almost no one stops having a cell phone in the area. Support for democracy is always higher among social network users, regardless of the network used.

  • The support of social networking users for democracy varies between 48% and 67%, depending on the country. network used, compared to an average support of 48%.
  • This could indicate a democratizing nature of socialization on the Internet. For example, support for democracy reaches 52% among those over 61, but reaches 77% among those over 61 who use Twitter.

  Still, Latin America is one of the happiest regions. Of the earth. 73% report being satisfied with their lives, which is one point less than in 2017 and four fewer than in 2015.

  Yet another obscure clear for an exciting badysis that requires a multidisciplinary deepening in order to discover the essential frontier of the new regional development. Whoever wants to hear you hear.

  The author is director of Intal-BID