Authoritarian Successor Parties in Latin America

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

In the last two decades of the 20th century, Latin America went from being a region that was almost entirely authoritarian to one that was almost entirely democratic. Democratization, however, did not mean that former authoritarian incumbents ceased to be important political actors. In several countries, they created authoritarian successor parties, or parties founded by high-level incumbents of former dictatorships that continue to operate after a transition to democracy. Several of these parties became major political actors, such as Mexico’s PRI, Guatemala’s FRG, Bolivia’s ADN, Panama’s PRD, and Chile’s UDI. What explains the success of such parties? And what effects do they have on democracy?

Sub Track

• Democratization

Session Organizer

• James I Loxton, University of Notre Dame

Chair

• James I Loxton, University of Notre Dame

Individual Presentations

• Persecution and Populism: Analyzing the Electoral Success of Guatemala’s FRG - Regina A Bateson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Institutions and Intra-Party Cooperation: Mexico's PRI - Joy K Langston Hawkes, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas

• Personalistic Authoritarian Successor Parties in Latin America - Steven R Levitsky, Harvard University

• The Effects of Authoritarian Successor Parties on Democracy: Negative, Positive, or Double-Edged? - James I Loxton, University of Notre Dame

• Regime Legacies and Authoritarian Successor Parties: The Contrasting Trajectories of the PDS and PFL in Brazil, 1985-2015 - Timothy J Power, University of Oxford

Discussant

• Frances Hagopian, Harvard University