Civic knowledge and political participation in unequal contexts: Six Latin American countries in comparative perspective

Empirical research in civic and political participation has consistently shown that higher levels of civic knowledge and higher participation levels are characteristic of those with higher socio-economic status and formal education. Socio-economic status differences among citizens are accentuated in societies with high inequality as the Latin American ones. This has the consequence that economic inequality is related to political inequality in terms of knowledge and participation. Such a link is not only a threat to the principles of egalitarian political participation in a democracy, but in the Latin American context it also puts at risk the legitimacy of the democratic system itself, as it no longer represents the whole spectrum of its citizenry.
Schools are considered one of the key social institutions for neutralizing the effects of differences in social origin and for providing possibilities of social mobility. In this ideal sense, it is certainly relevant to know to what extent social origin impacts on civic knowledge and at the same time whether civic knowledge affects the participation levels at school and on the disposition to civic participation in future adult life. Given the availability of the ICCS 2009 data and its Latin American module (29,962 students in 1,027 schools), for the first time there is an opportunity for an empirical analysis following this research question. Under the general hypothesis that low social origin is related to low civic knowledge and low participation levels at school and equally low dispositions to participate in adult life, the present paper compares this association in six Latin American countries: Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, and Paraguay. Preliminary results show that the association between status, civic knowledge and participation varies across countries, something that is discussed taking into account the diversity of educational programs and socio-economic situation of the countries considered.