Sunday, June 29, 2008

Ideology and popularity

Adam Isacson links to a report by a Mexican polling firm, which discusses the approval ratings of presidents across the region. It's been a rough year, as on average approval has dropped 10 points. Here is the list:

  1. 84% Álvaro Uribe, Colombia (3/08)
  2. 61% Felipe Calderón, Mexico (5/08)
  3. 55% Antonio Saca, El Salvador (5/08)
  4. 55% Evo Morales, Bolivia (5/08)
  5. 55% Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil (3/08)
  6. 54% Hugo Chávez, Venezuela (4/08)
  7. 53% Rafael Correa, Ecuador (6/08)
  8. 51% Martín Torrijos, Panama (4/08)
  9. 49% Álvaro Colom, Guatemala (3/08)
  10. 45% Tabaré Vázquez, Uruguay (3/08)
  11. 44% Oscar Arias, Costa Rica (4/08)
  12. 44% Michelle Bachelet, Chile (6/08)
  13. 38% Manuel Zelaya, Honduras (2/08)
  14. 34% Stephen Harper, Canada (3/08)
  15. 32% Alan García, Peru (6/08)
  16. 30% George W. Bush, United States (6/08)
  17. 26% Cristina Fernández, Argentina (5/08)
  18. 21% Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua (2/08)
  19. 5% Nicanor Duarte, Paraguay (3/08)
Despite all the elections of left-leaning presidents, the top three are actually conservative. Nonetheless, a majority (5 of 8) of those over 50% are on the left. Further, of the bottom three, two are on the left. It seems, then, that there is currently no clear link between ideology and popularity.

3 comments:

Paul 6:23 PM  

84%. Uribe's pimp hand is strong!

Thomas S. Higinbotham 8:33 PM  

Bumped into a young Colombian guy here in London the other day. Asked him whehter he thought Uribe was either good or bad for Colombia. He responded that he was nither good nor bad, "but AMAZING!" I then had to listen through a 30 minute passionate declaration of how he has been Colombia's best ever President and that the like of Chavez and Correa should watch out.

Greg Weeks 12:36 PM  

Of course, you could easily hear the same from a Chavez or Correa supporter in reverse.

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