Latin American Elites and their Views on Poverty and Inequality

• In Event: (Re)distributive Policies, Elites and Non-elite Actors in Latin America

Abstract

Research has shown, in Latin America and around the world, economic elites are actors with disproportionate weight in democracies. Because of their political clout, this paper focuses on understanding their ideas about two pressing issues in Latin America: poverty and inequality. To explore similarities and differences in elite thought around these issues, I analyze data from two different sources and across three countries: Honduras, Mexico, and Uruguay.

First, I collect and analyze web-scraped data of elite public statements on topics related to social and economic development, such as declarations made during interviews or conferences. This data reveals that - when elites do speak up about these issues - there are consistent common themes across the three countries. For the most part, they see the private sector as key in pushing forth a country’s development and see employment as the major way out of poverty. Yet, there are also notable themes that emerge only in some countries, such as corruption in Honduras.
I dig deeper into these findings by conducting 149 interviews with economic elites, such as Mexico’s third richest man and Uruguay’s first billionaire. Here, I also find that there is a consistent elite ideology that travels throughout the countries, but that the national context shapes these worldviews in different ways. I argue that two main variables drive the differences across countries: elites’ ideas of state capacity and their perceived level of threat from an anti-rich discourse. Where elites see the state as failing in its duties of providing basic services to its citizens, as in Honduras, they place less responsibility on the poor for their own fate. On the contrary, where the state is seen as strong and effective in providing for citizens, as in Uruguay, elites tend to justify poverty on individuals’ own decisions. Second, where elites feel antagonized by societal anti-rich rhetoric, as in Mexico, they increase their meritocratic views.
This paper contributes to the growing literature on economic elites’ ideas and attitudes on poverty and inequality in at least three ways. First, much of the work focuses on how elites act as collectives, for instance by studying the behavior of business groups. Fewer work zooms into the study of elites as individuals. By doing so, I offer a look into their thought-processes, which will then aid our understanding of how they act collectively. The few works that do center on economic elites tend to only cover one country, so we are missing out on comparative work. By incorporating three countries into the study, I bring to light how context can shape elite ideology.

Author

• Pilar Manzi, Northwestern University