Public Goods Provision and Democratic Legitimacy in Latin America: Does Citizen Satisfaction With Local and Political Public Goods Matter?

ABSTRACT

This cross‐country study assesses the impact of citizen satisfaction with the provision of local and political public goods on democratic legitimacy in Latin America. We introduce a composite index to capture citizens' perceptions of democratic legitimacy, incorporating both material and diffuse dimensions. Using individual‐ and cohort‐level data from five waves of the AmericasBarometer survey, we estimate pooled linear regression and fixed‐effects pseudo‐panel models for our Democratic Legitimacy Index. Our findings reveal that citizen satisfaction with both local and political public goods is positively and statistically significantly associated with material measures of democratic legitimacy. Nevertheless, no significant effect of local public goods is found when diffuse measures of regime legitimacy are considered. Overall, these results highlight the importance of more intangible dimensions of public goods, namely, political goods, in fostering both support for and valuation of democracy, as well as the extent to which Western democratic values are upheld in Latin America.