Elizabeth Zechmeister

Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Political Science and Director of LAPOP Vanderbilt University

  • Nashville TN

Expert in Latin American political behavior and director of the world-renowned Latin American Public Opinion Project.

Contact

Vanderbilt University

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Biography

Zechmeister received her Ph.D. from Duke University in 2003. Her research focuses on comparative political behavior and public opinion, in particular in Latin America. Her work includes studies of voting, ideology, political parties, representation, charisma, and crisis. Zechmeister has received support from the National Science Foundation for investigations into the public opinion consequences of terrorist threat and natural disaster, respectively. She has published articles in the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, Comparative Political Studies, and Political Behavior, among other outlets. She is co-author of Democracy at Risk: How Terrorist Threats Affect the Public (University of Chicago Press, 2009) and Latin American Party Systems (Cambridge University Press, 2010). She is co-editor of The Latin American Voter: Pursuing Representation and Accountability in Challenging Contexts (University of Michigan Press, 2015). In 2012, she was the recipient of the Vanderbilt A&S Jeffrey Nordhaus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and in 2015 she received the Vanderbilt Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching. Her courses focus on Latin American politics, Mexican politics, research design, and comparative political behavior and public opinion.

Areas of Expertise

Democracy
Polling
Latin America
Comparative Politics
Latin America Democracy
Latin America Politics
Public opinion polling
Public Opinion
South America

Accomplishments

Vanderbilt Jeffrey Nordhaus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching

2012

Education

Duke University

Ph.D.

Political Science

2003

Distinction in Exams

University of Chicago

M.A.

Latin American Studies

1996

Loyola University Chicago

B.A.

1994

Summa Cum Laude

Affiliations

  • Journal of Experimental Political Science : Associate Editor
  • Comparative Political Studies : Editorial Board Member
  • Journal of Politics : Editorial Board Member
  • Political Behavior : Editorial Board Member

Selected Media Appearances

Behind Latin America’s protests, a fading faith in democracy

Christian Science Monitor  online

2020-01-13

“Democracy has been failing to deliver on its promise,” says Elizabeth Zechmiester, who directs the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) at Vanderbilt University, which has tracked trends in democracy and public satisfaction in the region since 2004. “People feel less safe, more economically vulnerable, and that governments aren’t doing enough to respond to their basic needs.”

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The Key Factors for Protests Around the World

WNYC The Takeaway  radio

2019-10-22

We are seeing increasing civil unrest around the world, with protests in Ecuador, Peru, Barcelona, Hong Kong, Chile, Lebanon, and Haiti, among others. While these countries have different forms of government and different circumstances, at the heart of many of these protests are the increasing level of inequality and distrust, and disgust, with the inner workings of government. Are these mass movements a tipping point?

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Latin America awash in troubles amid protests, uprisings and a distracted Washington

Miami Herald  online

2019-10-17

“Peru and Ecuador are really interesting studies in contrast,” said Elizabeth Zechmeister, a political science professor at Vanderbilt and the director of the survey, known as LAPOP. “They are both experiencing instability but for very different reasons,” she said.

In Peru, crime and corruption are dominant themes “and growing irritants in the daily lives of Peruvians,” she said. “At the same time, the ruling class is seen as corrupt and unresponsive.”

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Selected Event Appearances

The Political Culture of Democracy in the Americas, 2016/17: A Comparative Study of Democracy and Governance

Florida International University  Florida International University

2017-09-26

How News Consumption Shapes the Security Agenda: Evidence from Latin America

Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship  McGill University

2017-03-10

News Consumption, Crime, and the National Agenda. Political Behavior Workshop

UC-Riverside  Riverside, CA

2017-01-27

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Selected Articles

Electoral Volatility in Latin America

The Journal of Politics

Mollie J. Cohen, Facundo E. Salles Kobilanski, and Elizabeth J. Zechmeister

2018

Using an original database of legislative and presidential electoral results from the democratic transitions of the 1970s and 1980s to the present day, we provide a new assessment of electoral volatility in Latin America. Following a model established in studies of other regions, we decompose volatility into two subtypes: party replacement and stable party volatility.

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Maximizing Benefits from Survey-Based Research

PS: Political Science & Politics

Noam Lupu and Elizabeth J. Zechmeister

2018

Despite the best intentions, only a small proportion of social science research findings are input into dialogue, policy, or other actions that improve human welfare.

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Threat and Information Acquisition: Evidence from an Eight Country Study

Journal of Experimental Political Science

Jennifer L. Merolla and Elizabeth J. Zechmeister

2018

We assess individuals’ responses to news about threat, compared to news about positive indicators of well-being, using data from nine experiments conducted across eight countries. The general proposition is that exposure to news about threat increases tendencies to “tune in” to information, compared to those presented with news about better times.

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