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Friends of Convenience: Mexico’s PRD and Popular-Sector Organizations

Sat, May 25, 2:15 to 3:45pm, TBA

Abstract

What role do popular-sector associations play in party building in contemporary Latin America? This paper focuses on state governments under Mexico’s PRD to explain variations in organizational linkage strategies for new parties of the left. I argue that linkages based on the promotion of shared programmatic goals prevail where both organization and party are positioned to pursue long-term goals; otherwise some mode of patronage politics emerges. The party balances a long-term interest in building an ideologically rooted party operation with the short-term interest in vote maximization. The downfall of the PRD can be partially explained by an overemphasis of the latter goal, undermining the party's ability to build and sustain organic linkages with ideologically aligned popular-sector groups.

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