El voto económico en el apoyo electoral a las candidaturas presidenciales de Salvador Allende, 1958-1970
Abstract
While recent studies on electoral behavior in Latin America underline the importance of the economic vote, studies on previous periods in democracies with institutionalized parties in the region point to the impact of ideology and social class. Yet, as the economic vote explanation has not been applied to elections in prior decades, we cannot discard the impact of economic perceptions on vote choice in 20th century elections. We use pre-electoral polls in Chile conducted between 1958 and 1970 to assess the effect of economic perceptions on vote intention for Socialist Salvador Allende. We confirm the importance of ideology and social class, but we also report that support for Allende is explained by negative economic perceptions and disapproval of the outgoing government. As today, though ideology and social class mattered, pre-1973 economic perceptions and presidential approval also informed vote choice.
