Background
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 The Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) came to Vanderbilt with its director, Mitchell Seligson. After 18 years at the University of Pittsburgh, where he held an endowed chair and founded LAPOP, Seligson joined the Vanderbilt faculty as Centennial Professor of Political Science and a Fellow of the Center for the Americas in 2004.
Since the 1970s, Seligson, his colleagues and students have systematically surveyed the citizens of Latin America on their political views—specifically on democratic values and their behaviors related to democracy. These surveys and the studies that have emerged from them have sought to determine the extent to which women may be excluded from political participation, the effect of education on tolerance for the rights of minorities, and the effects of government corruption on citizens. The project has regularly published in-depth analyses of the data collected in Spanish-language monographs in countries throughout Latin America. These are all available for free downloading on the LAPOP webpage Studies by Contry & Year.
Through years of polling in most of the countries of Latin America, Seligson and the LAPOP have developed a treasure-trove of databases of public opinion information about political viewpoints across Latin America. This data has been the basis of scores of articles in professional journals, and has been the basis of many of the 25 Ph.D. dissertations that Seligson has supervised over the years; it has also been utilized by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in its efforts to promote Latin American democracy and, perhaps most significantly, by the governments of several Latin American countries. The data produced has been utilized as well by the World Bank in its Governance measures.
USAID has provided major support for LAPOP and is now helping to fund five Latin American graduate students studying for their doctorates under Seligson at Vanderbilt. Recently, the project has received support from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), as well as the World Bank it LAPOP's recent work on anti-corruption surveys in Africa.
The Latin American Public Opinion Project60 surveys analyzing major topics of great interest to political and social scientists, Latin Americanists, government officials, and interested citizens. LAPOP surveys analyzing citizen views on system support, political tolerance, citizen participation, local government, corruption, and views on authoritarianism have been conducted and are now being archived for: BOLIVIA, BRAZIL, CHILE, COLOMBIA, COSTA RICA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, ECUADOR, GUATEMALA, GUYANA, HAITI, HONDURAS, JAMAICA, MEXICO, NICARAGUA, PANAMA, PARAGUAY, PERU, SALVADOR, URUGUAY, VENEZUELA as well as for ALBANIA, ISRAEL, MADAGASCAR , CANADA and UNITED STATES.
 U.S. phone number: (615)343.2097 Fax: (615)343.0778
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