Most recent studies of political behavior in Latin America have stressed the instrumental basis of lower-class political preferences and activity. This study examines empirically the relative influence of symbolic and normative orientations to politics and of economic utility on the political preferences and attitudes of urban workers in Mexico and Venezuela. In both countries, symbolic and normative orientations are found to exert a more powerful influence on regime support than does economic advantage or receipt of material benefits. We speculate on conditions that might shape the relative influence of instrumental versus expressive orientations to politics on the political preferences and behavior of the lower classes in Latin America.
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