Political Participation in the Barriadas

Abstract

Existing research on the voting behavior of the urban poor in the Third World has frequently suggested that demand aggregation by political parties (especially in a multiparty system) is not clear-cut, and that the urban poor do not tend to demonstrate marked party or ideological preferences. By replicating, deepening, and extending an early study done in Lima, Peru, new research reveals patterns of candidate and party support hitherto unidentified. District-level aggregate voting data and multiple-indicator census data reveal some clear patterns of support from low-income groups for opposition and leftist candidates.