Social representations of democracy in Colombia: a dimensional and territorial approach.

The objective of this study was to understand the organizing principles of the social representations of democracy in higher education students in Colombia, and their anchoring in sociodemographic and territorial variables. In three periods of time (2010, 2012 and 2017) students at university and technical/technological careers (total number: 12,171) from the 32 capital cities of each department in Colombia responded to a Scale of Social Representations of Democracy (ERSD) and to a list of sociodemographic variables. In a macro-level analysis, departmental averages of Democracy Balance were crossed with macro indicators of crime, extreme poverty, life expectancy and indigenous population percentage. Results show a seven dimensions factorial structure without significant relationships with age, gender or social class. At a macro level, regions with a high proportion of indigenous population showed a more positive evaluation of democracy over time, while higher crime rates are associated with a more negative evaluation of democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]