Latin American Traditional Parties, 1978-2006. Electoral Trajectories and Internal Party Politics (eBook)

Table of Contents
List of Tables · xi
List of Figures · xiii
Preface · xv
Acknowledgments · xix
Introduction · 1
Latin American Traditional Parties · 8
Case Studies · 23
Plan of the Book · 27
Chapter One
Determinants of Parties' Electoral Performance:
Traditional Explanations Reconsidered · 29
Economic Conditions · 29
Political Context: the Impact of Scandals
and Institutional Settings · 37
Conclusion · 45
Chapter Two
The Internal Organization of Latin American Parties · 47
Organization of Parties and Their Adaptive Capacity · 48
Institutionalization and Internal Structure of Parties · 51
Intraparty Conflict and Ideological Adaptation · 55
Ideological and Programmatic Coherence · 57
An Alternative Argument: the Effect of Parties' Internal
Features on Their Electoral Trajectories · 59
The Internal Organization of Parties · 60

viii latin american traditional parties, 1978-2006
Operationalization of the Internal Characteristics
of Parties · 70
Conclusion · 77
Chapter Three
Case Studies: Traditional Parties in Colombia and Venezuela · 79
The Origins and Early Trajectories of Traditional Parties · 81
The Origins of Traditional Parties · 81
Political Pacts in Colombia and Venezuela and the
Consolidation of "New" Party Systems · 84
Economic and Political Crises · 92
Colombia · 92
Venezuela · 95
Electoral Systems and Institutional Engineering · 97
Colombia · 97
Venezuela · 108
Internal Structure of Traditional Parties · 113
The Liberal Party (PL) · 113
The Conservative Party (PC) · 116
Democratic Action (AD) · 120
Social Christian Party (COPEI) · 124
Recapitulating · 128
Conclusion · 130
Chapter Four
The Effects of Parties Internal Organization on Their
Electoral Performance, 1978-2006 · 133
Data · 134
Dependent and Independent Variables · 137
Analysis · 141
The Effects of Parties' Internal Characteristics · 144
The Effects of Contextual and Institutional Variables
on Parties' Electoral Performance · 151
Conclusion · 156
Conclusion · 157