This article analyzes the impact of the economy on Latin American presidential elections between 1990 and 2010. The results presented here demonstrate that the incumbent's ideology and the political context affect this impact and that, therefore, the nature of the accountability relationship between voters and presidents varies across countries and presidential administrations. Firstly, the economy only affected the electoral performance of centrist incumbents, suggesting that voters give more importance to non-economic issues when evaluating the administration of right and left-wing presidents. Secondly, the economy only affected the electoral performance of incumbent candidates in single-party majority, which indicates that Latin American voters do not hold presidents accountable for economic performance when they depend on allies or the cooperation of the opposition to govern.
economic vote; Latin America; accountability; ideology; presidentialism
