Transforming Labor-Based Parties in Latin America Argentine Peronism in Comparative Perspective

Why did some Latin American labor-based parties adapt successfully to the contemporary challenges of neoliberalism and working class decline while others did not? Drawing on a detailed study of the Argentine Peronism, as well as a broader comparative analysis, this book develops an organizational approach to party change. Levitsky's study breaks new ground in its focus on informal and weakly institutionalized party structures. It argues that loosely structured party organizations, such as those found in many populist labor-based parties, are often better equipped to adapt to rapid environmental change than are more bureaucratic labor-based parties. The argument is illustrated in the case of Peronism, a mass labor-based party with a highly fluid internal structure. The book shows how this weakly routinized structure allowed party reformers to undertake a set of far-reached coalitional and programmatic changes that enabled Peronism to survive, and even thrive, in the neoliberal era.

1. Labor-based party adaptation in the neo-liberal era: rethinking the role of party organization; 2. Origins and evolution of a mass populist party; 3. An 'organized disorganization': the Peronist party organization in the 1990s; 4. Populism in crisis: environmental change and party failure, 1983–5; 5. From labor politics to machine politics: the transformation of the party-union linkage; 6. Menemism and neoliberalism: programmatic adaptation in the 1990s; 7. A view from below: party activists and the transformation of base-level Peronism; 8. The paradox of menemism: party adaptation and regime stability in the 1990s; 9. Crisis, party adaptation and democracy: Argentina in comparative perspective.

Explains why some contemporary Latin American labor-based parties adapted successfully to the challenges of neoliberalism and working class decline. It argues that loosely structured party organizations tend to be more flexible than the bureaucratic structures found in most labor-based parties through an analysis of the Argentine (Peronist) Justicialista Party (PJ).