Interest Groups, Parties, and Democracy in the 21st Century

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

In contemporary Latin America, collective action has changed in light of structural transformations. After 30 years of structural and market reforms, a cycle of commodity boom, and a cycle of leftist governments, the nature of the linkages between interest groups, social movements, and political parties has changed. These transformations also impact the logic of political representation and democracy. This panel will explore and unpack the interplay between different organized interests and political parties in different Latin American countries. Vommaro and Wills-Otero´s paper analyzes the participation of CEOs and other high-level business executives from big firms in Argentina and Colombia. Monestier´s long-term analysis of different trajectories of elite political engagement in Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay elucidates the types of linkages that exist between political organizations and the economic elites in these countries. Anria, Pérez, Piñeiro, and Rosenblatt discuss the relationship between social movements, unions, and political parties in the cases of the MAS in Bolivia and the Broad Front in Uruguay. Finally, Férnandez Milmanda analyzes the relationship between elites and parties in Chile.

Sub Unit

• Division 12: Comparative Politics of Developing Countries

Individual Presentations

• Patterns of Relationship Between Economic Elites and Political Parties - Felipe Monestier, Universidad de la República, Uruguay

• Social Movements, Unions and the Left in Bolivia and Uruguay - Santiago Anria, Dickinson College; Verónica Pérez Bentancur, Universidad de la República; Rafael Piñeiro, Universidad Catolica del Uruguay; Fernando Rosenblatt, Universidad Diego Portales

• Entrepreneurs and New Rightist Political Parties in Latin America - Gabriel Vommaro, National University of San Martín/CONICET; Laura Wills-Otero, Universidad de los Andes

• Agrarian Elites and the Partisan Right in Chile - María Belén Fernández Milmanda, Trinity College

Chair

• Juan Pablo Luna Instituto de Ciencia Política, PUC-Chile

Discussants

• Jana Morgan University of Tennessee, Knoxville

• Ruth Berins Collier University of California, Berkeley