Racial-ized Democracy: the electoral politics of race in Panama

Abstract

What is the electoral relevance of race in Latin American politics? This dissertation argues that inactive electoral identity, the absence of explicit electoral mobilization of an existing social identity, is an important form of ethnic politics. Previous Latin American politics scholarship concludes that political parties do not mobilize ethnicity, particularly black ethnicity, because voters do not demand it. I argue that political parties in Latin America are institutions nested within states that have historically activated and de-activated racial identities to achieve political objectives. Inactive electoral identity is thus a direct outcome of explicit racial projects and an overlooked mode of ethnic politics. This dissertation uses Panama as a theory building case to explain why and how political parties keep black electoral identity inactive. Chapter 2 of this dissertation identifies the state as a central site for race politics in Panama by showing that Panamanian political elites strategically mobilized and demobilized black identity in 20th and 21st century politics. Chapter 3 uses original survey and focus group evidence from Panama to challenge the assumption that the Latin American racialization model hinders the development of black group consciousness. I provide evidence that Afro-Panamanians express critical components of group consciousness, despite the sociopolitical hegemony of the Latin American racial paradigm. Chapter 4 uses a content analysis of political party platforms from the 2009 and 2014 Panamanian presidential elections to show that political parties do not activate black electoral identity, despite the historical and socio-political relevance of race to the politics of Panama’s racial state. Chapter 5 proposes political discrimination, the unequal terms of mobilization of constituents for the same electoral productivity, as an electoral mechanism for black marginalization in Latin American racial states. Using survey and experimental evidence I find that dark-skinned voters are as much as 74% more likely to report a vote buy offer than light-skinned voters. The dissertation’s conclusion explores the implications of inactive electoral identity and political discrimination on race politics in the Americas.