| We live in an increasingly globalized and interconnected world which poses research questions about how globalization affects our societies. A particular question that has been of interest to researchers around the globe for its implications for political economy and public policy is the relationship between globalization and democracy. However, the studies that have been carried out related to this question have focused on the analysis of aggregate level data. Different measures of globalization have been used with no consensus yet on the effect of globalization on democracy. The main contribution of the present study is to utilize microlevel data from the Latinobarometro survey to understand the effect of globalization on individuals' attitudes toward democracy in Latin America. For this purpose, this study utilizes multilevel analysis which takes into account the fact that individuals are nested into countries modeling the heterogeneity that exists among countries alongside individual variance in attitudes. Results from best fitting models of different specifications of globalization indicate that globalization as measured by an instrumental variable of trade has a positive and significant effect on satisfaction with democracy however, other specifications of globalization i.e. foreign direct investment and capital flows do not. Further, interesting findings regarding economic, political and institutional factors are discussed. |
