Latin American Party Systems

by Herbert Kitschelt , Kirk A. Hawkins , Juan Pablo Luna , Guillermo Rosas , Elizabeth J. Zechmeister

• ISBN13: 9780521132664
• ISBN10: 0521132665
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-02-22
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Political parties provide a crucial link between voters and politicians. This link takes a variety of forms in democratic regimes, from the organization of political machines built around clientelistic networks to the establishment of sophisticated programmatic parties. Latin American Party Systems provides a novel theoretical argument to account for differences in the degree to which political party systems in the region were programmatically structured at the end of the twentieth century. Based on a diverse array of indicators and surveys of party legislators and public opinion, the book argues that learning and adaptation through fundamental policy innovations are the main mechanisms by which politicians build programmatic parties. Marshalling extensive evidence, the book's analysis shows the limits of alternative explanations and substantiates a sanguine view of programmatic competition, nevertheless recognizing that this form of party system organization is far from ubiquitous and enduring in Latin America.

Table of Contents

List of Tables	p. x
List of Figures	p. xiii
Preface	p. xv
Introduction: Party Competition in Latin America	p. 1
Patterns of Programmatic Party Competition in Latin America	p. 14
Nature and Significance of Programmatic Linkages and Party System Structuration	p. 16
The Conditionality of Programmatic Partisan Competition	p. 29
The General Argument Applied to Latin America	p. 47
The Substantive Argument in Brief	p. 54
Describing Programmatic Structuration	p. 59
Empirical Indicators of Programmatic Party Competition	p. 59
Two Potential Sources of Measurement Error	p. 64
Issues, Ideologies, and Partisan Divides: Imprints of Programmatic Structure on Latin American Legislatures	p. 70
Ideological Dimensions in Latin American Legislatures	p. 71
Partisan Divides in Latin America	p. 84
Conclusion	p. 94
Left-Right Semantics as a Facilitator of Programmatic Structuration	p. 96
The Importance of the Left-Right Semantics	p. 96
An Overview of the Left-Right Semantics in Latin America	p. 98
The Substantive Meanings of the Left-Right Semantics	p. 104
Party Families and the Left-Right Semantics	p. 113
Comparing Symbolic and Substantive Components of Left-Right Semantics	p. 115
Conclusion	p. 118
Political Representation in Latin America	p. 119
Theoretical Perspectives on Political Representation	p. 120
Measuring Political Representation	p. 123
Representation Scores	p. 134
A Univariate Example: The Case of Privatization	p. 138
Conclusion: Representation Scores Compared to Other Indicators of PPS	p. 140
Ideological Cohesion of Political Parties in Latin America	p. 145
Measuring Cohesion	p. 146
Describing System Cohesion	p. 150
Cohesion II: Patterns at the Level of Individual Parties	p. 160
Conclusion	p. 167
Causes and Correlates of Programmatic Party System Structuration: Explaining Cross-National Diversity	p. 169
Long-Term Influences on the Structuring of Latin American Party Systems	p. 177
Capacities for Party System Structuration: Early Economic Development	p. 178
Opportunities for Mobilizing Programmatic Partisan Alternatives	p. 182
The Stakes of Programmatic Partisan Conflict	p. 188
Party System Institutionalization and Economic PPS?	p. 203
Conclusion	p. 205
Democratic Politics and Political Economy since the 1980s: Transforming the Programmatic Structure of Latin American Party Systems?	p. 209
Current Capacities and Resources for Programmatic Party Competition	p. 211
Opportunities to Enact Programmatic Party Competition	p. 216
Economic Stakes of Political Competition since the “Lost Decade” in Latin American Politics	p. 223
Conclusion	p. 232
Programmatic Structuration around Religion and Political Regime	p. 236
The Religious Divide and Christian Democracy	p. 238
Political Regime Divides after the Third Wave of Democratization	p. 259
Conclusion	p. 275
Programmatic Structuration and Democratic Performance	p. 279
Political Participation and Democratic Order	p. 283
The Process of Party Competition	p. 286
Processes of Policy Making and Governance	p. 291
Public Evaluations of Democratic Politics and Regime Stability	p. 297
Conclusion	p. 303
Conclusion	p. 306
Latin American Party Systems at the End of the Twentieth Century: Relevance of a Historical Snapshot	p. 308
Generalizing the Model beyond Latin America: The Postcommunist Experience	p. 318
The Future of Latin American Party System Structuration	p. 323
Latin American Party Politics in Perspective	p. 340
Description of Variables, Data Issues, and Research Design	p. 341
List of Variables	p. 353
English Translation of Relevant Portions of the Salamanca Survey	p. 355
Bibliography	p. 359
Index	p. 383
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