Table 3.4

Confidence in Congress

Country Confidence in Congress, Average 1996-2004 (percent) Confidence in Congress, 2004 (percent) Effectiveness of law-making bodies, 2004-2005 (1=very ineffective; 7=very effective)
Chile
36.0
29.7
3.7
Brazil
24.9
34.8
3.1
Uruguay
38.2
30.0
2.7
Colombia
20.3
24.4
2.7
Honduras
30.8
31.1
2.6
Costa Rica
29.9
35.3
2.2
Paraguay
25.0
19.5
2.2
El Salvador
27.7
21.8
2.1
Dominican Republic
n.a.
43.6
2.0
Mexico
27.4
23.1
2.0
Panama
22.5
24.8
1.8
Guatemala
19.9
19.2
1.8
Bolivia
19.9
15.5
1.8
Peru
22.1
14.5
1.7
Ecuador
13.3
8.3
1.7
Argentina
20.5
20.7
1.6
Nicaragua
23.1
16.1
1.6
Venezuela
27.8
30.6
1.4

n.a.: not applicable. As the Dominican Republic was included only in the 2004 survey, no average is shown.

Note: The first and second columns are the average percent of respondents from 1996 to 2004 and the percentage of respondents in 2004 in the Latinobarometer survey who stated that they had “a lot” or “some” confidence in the congress. The third column is the mean score given by business executives in the 2002-2005 World Economic Forum survey to the question: “How effective is your national parliament/congress as a lawmaking and oversight institution?”

Source: Latinobarometer (1996-2004) and World Economic Forum (2005).