46 TheAmericas TheEconomistOctober9th 2021
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
ingtrendconcernstheprofileofthetypical
democratinLatinAmerica.Youngerpeo
pleandespeciallythoseoftheupperclass
estendtobeindifferenttowardsthepoliti
calregime(seechart2).Thatpointstothe
disdainofelitesfordemocracy.
In 2020 70%ofLatinAmericanswere
dissatisfiedwiththewaytheirdemocracy
worksin practice.Thatislittlechanged
from72%in2018,butthosearethetwo
highestnumberssincethepollbegan.
Thereasonsfordisillusionmentarenot
hardtodetect.Only22%saytheircountry
is governedforthe benefitofeveryone,
ratherthanthepowerfulfew,thoughthat
isupfrom17%in2018,reflectingthecom
mon effort to fight 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
reflects a rallying round in the early
monthsofthepandemic.Buttrustininsti
tutionsingeneral continuesto fall(see
chart3).Andonly12%ofrespondentssay
theytrustmostpeople,thelowestfigure
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
thinkitsinfluenceisa negativeonecom
paredwiththatoftheUnitedStates.Inan
otherfinding64%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 flasks. But it is not for lack
of effort 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 differs from the
American variant in that its teams are of
12, not 11, players and the playing field is
somewhat larger (the balls were bigger
once but since 2018 have been the same
size). The rules slightly differ 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
Netflix 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