The Economist - USA (2021-10-09)

TheEconomistOctober9th 2021 TheAmericas 33

courtin 2020 andimposedatightlock­
downagainstthepandemic.Hisrewardis
that66% ofrespondentsin El Salvador
think the country is progressing, com­
paredwitha regionalaverageofjust19%.
Support for democracy in Braziland
Mexico,LatinAmerica’stwogiants,iswell
belowtheregionalaverage.Anotherworry­
ingtrendconcernstheprofileofthetypical
democratinLatinAmerica.Youngerpeo­
pleandespeciallythoseoftheupperclass­
estendtobeindifferenttowardsthepoliti­
calregime(seechart2).Thatpointstothe
disdainofelitesfordemocracy.
In 2020 70%ofLatinAmericanswere
dissatisfiedwiththewaytheirdemocracy
worksin practice.Thatislittlechanged
from72%in2018,butthosearethetwo

highestnumberssincethepollbegan.

Thereasonsfordisillusionmentarenot

hardtodetect.Only22%saytheircountry

is governedforthe benefitofeveryone,

ratherthanthepowerfulfew,thoughthat

isupfrom17%in2018,reflectingthecom­

mon effort to fight the virus. Only17%

thinkthedistributionofwealthintheir

countryisfair.Clearmajoritiesthinkthat

accesstohealthcare,educationandjustice

isunequal.InChile93%thinkaccessto

health careis unfair—anissuethat has

beenattheheartofrecentproteststhere.

Overall,morethanhalfofrespondentssay

theyareinfavourofprotests,especiallyfor

better healthandeducationandagainst

corruptionandotherabuses.

Approvalofgovernmentsrosesignifi­

cantly,to40%from32%in2018.Thatagain

reflects a rallying round in the early

monthsofthepandemic.Buttrustininsti­

tutionsingeneral continuesto fall(see

chart3).Andonly12%ofrespondentssay

theytrustmostpeople,thelowestfigure

ever.Notsurprisingly,economicproblems

andunemploymenttopthelistofpublic

concerns. The majority of respondents

(58%,downfrom62%in2018)continueto

thinka marketeconomyistheonlywayfor

theircountrytodevelop.Mostareopposed

toimmigrationfromVenezuelaandHaiti.

Although China playsamuch bigger

roleinLatinAmericantradeandinvest­

mentthaninthepast,morerespondents

thinkitsinfluenceisa negativeonecom­

paredwiththatoftheUnitedStates.Inan­

otherfinding64%nowthinktheircoun­

try’srelationswiththeUnitedStatesare

good,upfrom57%in2017.

In summary,while theirfaithin de­

mocracyhasbeentested,LatinAmericans

wanttovoteandwanttheirvoicestobe

heard.Despitethesenseofsolidaritygen­

eratedbythepandemic,theirunderlying

discontentis hardening.The politicians

havebeenwarned. n

A feckless elite

Latin America, preferred form of government

2020, % responding

Source:Latinobarómetro *Self-reported

2

61 orolder

41-60

26-40

16-2

1007550250

Byagegroup

Democratic Don’t care Authoritarian

Higher

Secondary

Basic

1007550250

By level of education

Lower

Middle-lower

Middle-upper

Upper-middle

Upper

1007550250

By social class*

Cloud of suspicion

Latin America, confidence* in institutions

2020, % of respondents

Source:Latinobarómetro *Very or somewhat confident

3

6050403020100

Political parties

Congress

Judiciary

Government

Electoral institutions

President

Police

Armed forces

Church

I

n canada,football(meaningthe

Canadian version of the American sort)

generally comes far below ice hockey in

terms of the emotions it generates. The

latter occasionally sparks riots by de­

mented young fans; the former is

watched mostly by a dedicated but older

crowd, who huddle in cold stadiums

with Thermos flasks. But it is not for lack

of effort by its promoters. In the 1990s

the Canadian Football League’s (cfl)

marketers tried to attract American

football fans with the slogan “Our balls

are bigger”. Last year the pandemic

stopped the league entirely, but this year

the games restarted and they are trying

again. October 11th, Canadian Thanks­

giving, will be a big day of sport. It is a

chance to boost the fanbase.

Canadian football differs from the

American variant in that its teams are of

12, not 11, players and the playing field is

somewhat larger (the balls were bigger

once but since 2018 have been the same

size). The rules slightly differ too. The

season usually starts in June, when the

nfl, America’s league, is not running.

The sport has been in decline for years,

particularly beyond the interior plains,

its heartland. The bcLions, a team based

in Vancouver, drew an average of 18,000

fans to its games at bcPlace in 2019.

Fifteen years ago they routinely had

twiceasmany.DerekMager,a dataana­

lyst who consults for cfl teams, de­

scribes the fans as mostly hardy old

timers: “They’ve been doing it for as long

as they can remember and as long as

their grandparents can remember.”

Executives such as Amar Doman, the

new owner of the bcLions, hope that

they can bring in new blood. In 2019,

before the pandemic shut things down,

the league recruited players from Europe

and Mexico in the hope of bringing in an

audience outside Canada. It has also

signed television broadcast deals in the

United States and in Mexico to simulcast

Canadian games. Earlier this year the cfl

announced that it was in talks on a part­

nership with the xfl, an alternative

American football league owned in part

by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, a Holly­

wood star. It came to nothing.

Years ago the nfland the cflused to

compete for talent, most notably in 1991

when Raghib “Rocket” Ismail, a star

player for Notre Dame, an American

university, passed up a spot in thenfl

and took $26m to play in Toronto in­

stead. Nowadays salaries in the nflare

over 30 times higher than further north.

Canadian football has to compete not

only with other sports, but also with

Netflix and the like. It will take more

than a Hail Mary pass to turn it around.

Canadianfootball

Shrinking balls, shrinking interest

V ANCOUVER

Canadian football is wasting away

Latinobarómetro is a non-profit organisation

based in Santiago, Chile, which has carried

out regular opinion surveys across Latin

America since 1995. To see more data visit:

economist.com /latinobarometro