Conservative Party-Building in Latin America

Where do strong conservative parties come from? While there is a growing scholarly awareness about the importance of such parties for democratic stability, much less is known about their origins. In this groundbreaking book, James Loxton takes up this question by examining new conservative parties formed in Latin America between 1978 and 2010. The most successful cases, he finds, shared a surprising characteristic: they had deep roots in former dictatorships.Through a comparative analysis of failed and successful cases in Argentina, Chile, El Salvador, and Guatemala, Loxton argues that this was not a coincidence. The successes inherited a range of resources from outgoing authoritarian regimes that, paradoxically, gave them an advantage in democratic competition. He also highlights the role of intense counterrevolutionary struggle as a source of party cohesion.In addition to making an empirical contribution to the study of the Latin American right and a theoretical contribution to the study of party-building, Loxton advances our understanding of the worldwide phenomenon of "authoritarian successor parties"—parties that emerge from authoritarian regimes but that operate after a transition to democracy. A major work, Conservative Party-Building in Latin America will reshape our understanding of politics in contemporary Latin America andthe realities of democratic transitions everywhere.

The author provides four painstakingly researched chapters offering historically rich narratives on the successes of the ARENA and UDI parties and the struggles of their Argentine and Guatemalan counterparts. This is comparative political science at its best., This is comparative political science at its best., Democracies need strong conservative parties. But in the modern era, strong conservative parties are hard to build. Loxton's book uncovers a surprising but important path to party-building. This is simply the best book on the Latin American Right that I have read. It makes a major contribution to our understanding of party-building, not only in Latin America but worldwide. Anyone interested in political parties should read it., Loxton patiently unveils the mechanisms of continuity in a subset of conservative parties that prospered paradoxically in democratic politics as unapologetic heirs of authoritarianism. His book is a counter-intuitive, masterfully-crafted, and field-defining study of conservative party development and Latin American politics., In this extraordinarily bold, original, and persuasive study, Loxton reckons with the uncomfortable conclusion that the most successful parties of the political right in contemporary Latin America grew out of the dictatorial past. Conservative Party-Building in Latin America sheds light not only on the Latin American right but also on the dynamics of party building more broadly. It is a study holding lessons that promise to withstand the test of time.

James Loxton is a Senior Lecturer in Comparative Politics at the University of Sydney. His research examines authoritarian regimes, democratization, and political parties, with a focus on Latin America. He is the co-editor of Life after Dictatorship: Authoritarian Successor Parties Worldwide and Challenges of Party-Building in Latin America. He holds a PhD in Government from Harvard University.