The fragmentation of political systems, in which there is a growing parliamentary dispersal that complicates the enactment of laws, is the new phenomenon of the times in Latin America, with democracies undergoing the emergence of new parties y a lot of volatility in voter preferences, the economist assured Télam Alfredo Serrano Mansilladirector of the Latin American Strategic Center (Celag).
To draw attention to this trend, Celag released a report on Thursday entitled “democracy spotify”a definition that seeks to focus on the parallels observed in the behavior of those who are going to vote with the daily practices of users of the digital music platform.
Serrano Mansilla, doctor in Economics born in Seville and author of the book “Evo, Rescue Operation”investigated this process in the last two years to reach the conclusion that the recent electoral processes in three South American countries, Peru, Chile and Ecuador, could be classified under the original category of “spotify democracy”, a concept originally coined by the Polish academic Pawel Zerka.
🧠 • We are witnessing a new phenomenon of the times: democracy has become a system of high fragmentation and volatility https://t.co/qykFf8O4bl
— CELAG (@CELAGeopolitica) March 9, 2023
“In Peru, Chile and Ecuador, in the last two electoral processes, we are observing how the legislative branch is increasingly fragmented. In the case of Peru, it is very noticeable how the two main forces concentrate fewer votes and there are more and more party forces with greater parliamentary representation“Described the analyst.
And he warned about the “paradox” embodied in the phenomenon of “spotify democracy”, characterized by the irruption of new parties that exceed the threshold of 5% of the votes, which in turn leads to a fragmented political map that in theory would enrich pluralism but that in legislative action generates “instability”.
“We also noticed this process at the presidential level. In the last elections in Peru there was a great variety of candidates. The same in Ecuador, where in the last elections there were already more competitive candidates, and in Chile something similar happened: the vote. So much so that the current president (Gabriel) Boric obtained very little percentage of the census. The same thing happened to Lasso in Ecuador and Pedro Castillo in Peru,” he said.
Democracy Spotify in Latin America
➡️ Fragmented Political System: a lot of electoral supply
➡️ The vote changes a lot: everything is ephemeral
We analyze 🇵🇪🇨🇱🇪🇨🇨🇴🇲🇽 at the legislative and presidential level
see @CELAGeopolitica next to @pascualsergio @nicolasolivap pic.twitter.com/MceBERLhg1— Alfredo Serrano Manc (@alfreserramanci) March 9, 2023
The Celag report on the processes of political fragmentation in South America also states that the phenomenon of the so-called “spotify democracy” is also due to social changes produced in the last decade and promoted by the pandemic, such as the technological revolution, the impact of networks, relocation, globalization and inequalities in the world of work.
The study, which analyzes the latest political events in Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, evaluates electoral data from two perspectives: the percentage of seats accumulated by the two main parties in the legislative elections and the percentage of votes accumulated by the two top first-round presidential candidacies over the past decade.
In Peru, the case that the report highlights the most, the two main parties went from concentrating 65% of the seats in 2011 to having only 35% in 2021.
From these data it can be deduced that to reach 50% five parties are required.
In the last Peruvian elections, held in April 2021, ten Peruvian parties exceeded 5% required to access Parliament, a figure that after some divisions rose to 12 parliamentary groups plus a mixed group.
A similar phenomenon occurred in Ecuador, where in 2013 the two main parties accounted for 80% of the seats in the Assembly, while today they only have 55%.
A very different reality from that of 2013, when a single force (Alianza País, correísmo) represented almost three quarters of all seats (73%) while the sum of the third, fourth and fifth forces barely reached 7 %.
Something similar is also happening in Chile, although with less intensity: in 2009 the first two presidential candidates in the first round concentrated almost three quarters of the valid votes, while in 2021 they only achieved slightly more than half (54%). .
