Open AccessForeign Policy Change in Latin America: Exploring a Middle-Range Concept
Author(s) -
Federico Merke,
Diego Reynoso,
Luis L. Schei
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
latin american research review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.489
H-Index - 48
eISSN - 1542-4278
pISSN - 0023-8791
DOI - 10.25222/larr.380
Subject(s) - ideology , foreign policy , latin americans , presidential system , political science , set (abstract data type) , nonparametric statistics , political economy , sociology , economics , econometrics , law , politics , computer science , programming language
This article examines patterns of change and continuity in Latin American foreign policies. It asks two interrelated questions: How can we conceptually and empirically account for foreign policy change? And why do states change their foreign policies in Latin America? To answer these questions, we used the results of a new expert survey on foreign policy preferences in the region between 1980 and 2014. The results we obtained using both linear and nonparametric specifications are very clear and consistent: presidential ideology is what matters the most. Simply put, a change in the ideology of the president produces a change in foreign policy that is almost equivalent in magnitude, all other theoretically relevant factors set to their means.