Why do intensely polarised electorates coexist with unstable parties and volatile elections? Factionalised Voters in Latin America challenges conventional accounts of Latin American voters as politically unmoored and prone to shifting parties unpredictably. It argues instead that beneath the region’s fluid party systems lie persistent identities and antagonisms. At the heart of the book is the concept of the factionalised voter: a citizen who interprets social life through powerful distinctions between political friends and foes. Drawing on original surveys and focus groups in four countries, the book explores how these voters understand themselves and their adversaries. It shows that moral and class-based stereotypes, alongside affective and ideological animosities, determine political identities and structure electoral choice, allowing voters to remain politically anchored even when parties change. With a unique mixed-method and comparative analysis, the book further identifies different varieties of polarisation. Some factions combine strong attachment to their own side with rejection of opponents, producing durable partisan loyalties. Others are held together primarily by hostility towards a rival. These identities can be equally powerful in structuring political competition; while their electoral expression is less stable, they reinforce deeper faultlines. By showing how enduring political antagonisms can generate both electoral order and party-system instability, Factionalised Voters in Latin America offers a new interpretation of political identity, polarisation, and representation.
