Political Discontent in Latin America, with Political Scientist Vicky Murillo

In this episode, Vicky Murillo, professor of political science and international and public affairs at Columbia University, joins Kellogg Doctoral Affiliate Géssica de Freitas, PhD student in political science at the University of Notre Dame, for a conversation about her forthcoming co-edited volume with Gabriel Kessler. The book examines a pressing question in contemporary Latin America: why are citizens increasingly disillusioned with democracy, even as the region has achieved notable social progress? Murillo discusses how improvements in poverty reduction, education, and rights expansion have raised expectations that many governments have struggled to fulfill, generating frustration and widespread political discontent. She explains the distinction between “vertical” discontent, aimed at political elites as a whole, and “horizontal” discontent, which targets opposing political coalitions – each presenting unique challenges for democratic stability and representation in Latin America.

 

Welcome to Global Stage, a podcast highlighting academic and policy-oriented international research on democracy and human development. Your host today is Kellogg Doctoral Student Affiliate Géssica de Freitas, a PhD student in political science at Notre Dame. She is joined by Maria Victoria Murillo, a political scientist at Columbia University who studies political institutions and democratic attitudes in Latin America.

To begin, Murillo discusses the paradox at the center of her recent research: despite major social gains during the 2000s – declining poverty, rising education levels, and the growth of a new middle class – political discontent has surged across the region. When the commodity boom ended, economic progress did not collapse but instead stalled, creating frustrated expectations. This produced forms of discontent that express themselves either as horizontal polarization – where citizens blame and oppose specific governing coalitions – or vertical discontent, in which citizens distrust the entire political class and seek to throw them all out.

Murillo connects this dissatisfaction to longstanding patterns of institutional weakness. In many Latin American countries, institutions that formally promise rights or services are inconsistently enforced, generating disappointment. Informal practices such as clientelism or tolerating informal labor serve as substitutes for real state capacity, reinforcing inequality and resentment. Rising crime and weak security provision further erode trust and participation, helping explain why voters may support anti-establishment leaders willing to curtail democratic freedoms, as in El Salvador under Bukele. At the same time, widespread protest movements are also a sign of democratic vitality, representing citizens choosing to voice their dissatisfaction rather than exit through migration or crime.

Brazil’s current situation is a clear case of horizontal discontent, with polarization between supporters of Lula and supporters of Bolsonaro. This divide is rooted in the distributive policies of previous left governments, which some groups felt included in and others felt excluded from. Although tensions have intensified, Murillo argues that this polarization has also prevented any single actor from concentrating power, sustaining a form of democratic balance. She then turns to inequality in Latin America, explaining that material inequality overlaps with racial, regional, and gender hierarchies. In discussing the future of democracy in the region, Murillo emphasizes that while weak institutions contribute to cycles of frustration, they still represent a significant improvement over past authoritarianism. Citizens have internalized the idea of rights and are demanding that democracies fulfill their promises, not that they be replaced. She concludes by advising young scholars to choose research topics they feel personally committed to, since meaningful research requires endurance, passion, and a sense of purpose.
 

• Learn more about M. Victoria Murillo.
• Learn more about the Kellogg Institute.