Political Parties and Linkage Mechanisms in Latin America: Trends, Challenges, and Responses
No. 122 (2025-04-16)Author(s)
-
Diego LujánUniversidad de la República (Uruguay)
-
Jennifer CyrUniversidad Torcuato Di Tella (Argentina)
Abstract
Objective/context: Recent trends in the linkages between politicians and citizens in Latin America are identified and characterized. Methodology: Several challenges facing Latin American democracies are identified, which have called into question their ability to maintain and strengthen political linkages. Second, it is argued that new ways of connecting politics with citizens have emerged in response to these challenges. Conclusions: On the one hand, the decline in partisanship has led to personalist connections fueled by anti-party rhetoric that undermines traditional forms of political mediation. On the other hand, new social segments have given rise to non-traditional forms of linkage that do not follow the typical patterns of mobilization and adherence, but are supported by partial claims, not necessarily material in nature. Originality: These processes reveal an increasing complexity of linkage mechanisms across Latin America. Today’s landscape is more heterogeneous, volatile, and potentially conflictive than that which emerged from the region’s third wave of democratization.
References
Aldrich, John. 2012. ¿Por qué los partidos políticos? Una segunda mirada. Madrid: CIS.
Aldrich, John, Austin Bussing, Arvind Krishnamurthy, Nicolas Madan, Katelyn Ice, Kristen Renberg y Hannah Ridge. 2020. “Does a Partisan Public Increase Democratic Stability?”. En Research Handbook on Political Partisanship, editado por Gustav Henrik, Ekengren Oscarsson y Sören Holmberg, 256-265. Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Amaral, Oswaldo. 2020. “The Victory of Jair Bolsonaro According to the Brazilian Electoral Study of 2018”. Brazilian Political Science Review 14: e0004. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/1981-3821202000010004
Andrews-Lee, Caitlin. 2021. The Emergence and Revival of Charismatic Movements: Argentine Peronism and Venezuelan Chavismo. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Areal, João. 2022. “‘Them’ Without ‘Us’: Negative Identities and Affective Polarization in Brazil”. Political Research Exchange 4 (1): 2117635. https://doi.org/10.1080/2474736X.2022.2117635
Badillo Sarmiento, Reynell, Luis Fernando Trejos Rosero y Angélica Rodríguez Rodríguez. 2025. “‘El territorio es tuyo, pero la gente es nuestra’: los vínculos familiares y emocionales en la guerra por la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta”. Colombia Internacional 122: 187-213. https://doi.org/10.7440/colombiaint122.2025.07
Banco Mundial, PNUD. 2022. Acceso y uso de Internet en América Latina y el Caribe [edición digital]. https://www.undp.org/sites/g/files/zskgke326/files/2022-09/undp-brlac-Digital-ES.pdf
Bankert, Alexa. 2020. “The Origins and Effect of Negative Partisanship”. En Research Handbook on Political Partisanship, editado por Gustav Henrik Ekengren Oscarsson y Sören Holmberg, 89-101. Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Bauman, Zygmunt. 2013. The Individualized Society. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bene, Márton, Andrea Ceron, Vicente Fenoll, Jörg Haßler, Simon Kruschinski, Anders Olof Larsson, Melanie Magin, Katharina Schlosser y Anna-Katharina Wurst. 2022. “Keep Them Engaged! Investigating the Effects of Self-Centered Social Media Communication Style on User Engagement in 12 European Countries”. Political Communication 39 (4): 429-453. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2022.2042435
Berman, Luciana, Felipe Alejandro Vega Terra, Emilio Gabriel Soto y Ana Sofía Izurieta. 2025. “De la extrema derecha al centro: adaptación partidaria en contextos de transición de régimen. Los casos chileno y español”. Colombia Internacional 122: 61-91. https://doi.org/10.7440/colombiaint122.2025.03
Bull, Bendicte y Francisco Rivera. 2020. “COVID-19, Elites and the Future Political Economy of Inequality Reduction in Latin America”. CEPAL Review 132: 77-91. https://hdl.handle.net/11362/46929
Cameron, Maxwell A. 2009. “Latin America’s Left Turns: Beyond Good and Bad”. Third World Quarterly 30 (2): 331-348. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436590802681082
Campbell, Angus, Philip Converse, Warren Miller y Donald Stokes. 1960. The American Voter. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Caruana, Nicholas, Michael McGregor y Laura Stephenson. 2015. “The Power of the Dark Side: Negative Partisanship and Political Behaviour in Canada”. Canadian Journal of Political Science 48 (4): 771-789. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423914000882
Castañeda, Jorge G. 2006. “Latin America’s Left Turn”. Foreign Affairs 85 (3): 28-43. https://doi.org/10.2307/20031965
Cavieres, Julia, Jesús Guzmán-Castillo y Carlos Meléndez. 2025. “Identidades partidarias negativas como vínculos políticos en América Latina”. Colombia Internacional 122: 31-60. https://doi.org/10.7440/colombiaint122.2025.02
Chadwick, Andrew y Jennifer Stromer-Galley. 2016. “Digital Media, Power, and Democracy in Parties and Election Campaigns: Party Decline or Party Renewal?”. The International Journal of Press/Politics 21 (3): 283-293. https://doi.org/10.1177/1940161216646731
Cleary, Matthew. 2006. “Explaining the Left’s Resurgence”. Journal of Democracy 17 (4): 35-49. https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2006.0058
Clerici, Paula, Gabriel Kessler y Gabriel Vommaro. 2025. “Vínculos juveniles con la política: brechas generacionales y de género, y neoautoritarismo en Argentina, Brasil, Colombia y México”. Colombia Internacional 122: 147-186. https://doi.org/10.7440/colombiaint122.2025.06
Converse, Philip. 1969. “Of Time and Partisan Stability”. Comparative Political Studies 2 (2): 139-171. https://doi.org/10.1177/001041406900200201
Coppedge, Michael. 2001. “Political Darwinism in Latin America’s Lost Decade”. En Political Parties and Democracy, editado por Larry Diamond y Richard Gunther, 173-205. Baltimore; Londres: JHU Press.
Cyr, Jennifer. 2016. “Between Adaptation and Breakdown: Conceptualizing Party Survival”. Comparative Politics 49 (1): 125-145. https://doi.org/10.5129/001041516819582919
Cyr, Jennifer. 2017. The Fates of Political Parties: Institutional Crisis, Continuity, and Change in Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cyr, Jennifer, Matías Bianchi, Lucas González y Antonella Perini. 2021. “Governing a Pandemic: Assessing the Role of Collaboration on Latin American Responses to the COVID-19 Crisis”. Journal of Politics in Latin America 13 (3): 290-327. https://doi.org/10.1177/1866802X211049250
Cyr, Jennifer y Carlos Meléndez. 2016. “Una exploración de la identidad (y la anti-identidad) política a nivel subnacional: el fujimorismo y el chavismo en perspectiva comparada”. En Partidos políticos y elecciones. Representación política en América Latina, editado por Fernando Tuesta Soldevilla, 211-228. Lima: Jurado Nacional de Elecciones.
Dalton, Russell. 2000. “The Decline of Party Identifications”. En Parties Without Partisans: Political Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies, editado por Russell Dalton y Martin Wattenberg, 19-36. Nueva York: Oxford University Press.
Dalton, Russell y Martin Wattenberg. 2000. “Unthinkable Democracy: Political Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies”. En Parties Without Partisans: Political Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies, editado por Russell Dalton y Martin Wattenberg, 3-16. Nueva York: Oxford University Press.
Dosek, Tomás y Renato Pozada. 2025. “El clientelismo y la compra de votos en América Latina: lecciones de la comparación de Paraguay y Guatemala”. Colombia Internacional 122: 93-119. https://doi.org/10.7440/colombiaint122.2025.04
Downs, Antony. 1957. An Economic Theory of Democracy. Nueva York: Harper and Row.
Feierherd, Germán, Patricio Larroulet, Wei Long y Nora Lustig. 2023. “The Pink Tide and Income Inequality in Latin America”. Latin American Politics and Society 65 (2): 110-144. https://doi.org/10.1017/lap.2022.47
Frantz, Erica, Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Carisa Nietsche y Joseph Wright. 2021. “How Personalist Politics Is Changing Democracies”. Journal of Democracy 32 (3): 94-108. https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2021.0036
Garzia, Diego y Federico Ferreira Da Silva. 2024. Negative Voting in Comparative Perspective. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
Garzia, Diego, Federico Ferreira Da Silva y Andrea De Angelis. 2021. Leaders Without Partisans: Dealignment, Media Change, and the Personalization of Politics. Londres: ECPR Press.
Gibson, Rachel, Fabienne Greffet y Marta Cantijoch. 2017. “Friend or Foe? Digital Technologies and the Changing Nature of Party Membership”. Political Communication 34 (1): 89-111. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2016.1221011
Gil de Zúñiga, Homero, Nakwon Jung y Sebastián Valenzuela. 2012. “Social Media Use for News and Individuals’ Social Capital, Civic Engagement and Political Participation”. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 17 (3): 319-336. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2012.01574.x
Greene, Steven. 2004. “Social Identity Theory and Party Identification”. Social Science Quarterly 85 (1): 136-153. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0038-4941.2004.08501010.x
Haggard, Stephan y Robert Kaufman. 2021. Backsliding: Democratic Regress in the Contemporary World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Haime, Agustina y Francisco Cantú. 2022. “Negative Partisanship in Latin America”. Latin American Politics and Society 64 (1): 72-92. https://doi.org/10.1017/lap.2021.54
Hunter, Wendy y Timothy Power. 2019. “Bolsonaro and Brazil’s Illiberal Backlash”. Journal of Democracy 30 (1): 68-82. https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2019.0005
Iyengar, Shanto, Yphtach Lelkes, Matthew Levendusky, Neil Malhotra y Sean Westwood. 2019. “The Origins and Consequences of Affective Polarization in the United States”. Annual Review of Political Science 22 (1): 129-146. https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-polisci-051117-073034
Kendall-Taylor, Andrea, Erica Frantz y Joseph Wright. 2017. “The Global Rise of Personalized Politics: It’s Not Just Dictators Anymore”. The Washington Quarterly 40 (1): 7-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/0163660X.2017.1302735
Kestler, Thomas. 2022. “Radical, Nativist, Authoritarian—Or All of These? Assessing Recent Cases of Right-Wing Populism in Latin America”. Journal of Politics in Latin America 14 (3): 289-310. https://doi.org/10.1177/1866802X221117565
Key, V.O., Jr. 1964. Politics, Parties, & Pressure Groups. Nueva York: Crowell.
Kitschelt, Herbert, Kirk A. Hawkins, Juan Pablo Luna, Guillermo Rosas y Elizabeth J. Zechmeister. 2012. Latin American Party Systems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kluknavská, Alena, Vlastimil Havlík y Jan Hanzelka. 2024. “Unleashing the Beast: Exploring Incivility and Intolerance in Facebook Comments Under Populist and Non-populist Politicians’ Social Media Posts About Migration”. Human Affairs 34 (1): 119-135. https://doi.org/10.1515/humaff-2023-0046
Lee, Changjun, Jieun Shin y Ahreum Hong. 2018. “Does Social Media Use Really Make People Politically Polarized? Direct and Indirect Effects of Social Media Use on Political Polarization in South Korea”. Telematics and Informatics 35 (1): 245-254. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2017.11.005
Leonardelli, Geoffrey y Soo Min Toh. 2015. “Social Categorization in Intergroup Contexts: Three Kinds of Self-Categorization”. Social and Personality Psychology Compass 9 (2): 69-87. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12150
Levendusky, Matthew y Neil Malhotra. 2016. “Does Media Coverage of Partisan Polarization Affect Political Attitudes?”. Political Communication 33 (2): 283-301. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2015.1038455
Levitsky, Steven. 2007. “From Populism to Clientelism? The Transformation of Labor-Based Party Linkages in Latin America”. En Patrons, Clients, and Policies, editado por Herbert Kitschelt y Steven Wilkinson, 206-226. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Levitsky, Steven y Maxwell A. Cameron. 2003. “Democracy Without Parties? Political Parties and Regime Change in Fujimori’s Peru”. Latin American Politics and Society 45 (3): 1-33. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-2456.2003.tb00248.x
Levitsky, Steven y Kenneth Roberts. 2011. The Resurgence of the Latin American Left. Baltimore: JHU Press.
Levitt, Barry S. 2012. Power in the Balance: Presidents, Parties, and Legislatures in Peru and Beyond. South Bend, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.
Loader, Brian D., Ariadne Vromen y Michael A. Xenos. 2014. “The Networked Young Citizen: Social Media, Political Participation and Civic Engagement”. Information, Communication & Society 17 (2): 143-150. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2013.871571
Luján, Diego y Federico Acosta y Lara. 2024. “Assessing Electoral Personalism in Latin American Presidential Elections”. Journal of Politics in Latin America 16 (3): 275-299. https://doi.org/10.1177/1866802X241250034
Luján, Diego y Gonzalo Puig Lombardi. 2024. “El encanto electoral del personalismo: explicando el ascenso de Nayib Bukele en El Salvador”. América Latina Hoy 94: e31891. https://doi.org/10.14201/alh.31891
Luna, Juan Pablo y Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser. 2014. The Resilience of the Latin American Right. Baltimore: JHU Press.
Luna, Juan Pablo y Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser. 2021. “Castigo a los oficialismos y ciclo político de derecha en América Latina”. Revista Uruguaya de Ciencia Política 30 (1): 135-156. https://doi.org/10.26851/rucp.30.1.6
Lupu, Noam. 2014. “Brand Dilution and the Breakdown of Political Parties in Latin America”. World Politics 66 (4): 561-602. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0043887114000197
Mainwaring, Scott y Aníbal Pérez-Liñán. 2023. “Why Latin America’s Democracies Are Stuck”. Journal of Democracy 34 (1): 156-170. https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2023.0010
Mayer, Sabrina. 2017. “How Negative Partisanship Affects Voting Behavior in Europe: Evidence from an Analysis of 17 European Multi-party Systems with Proportional Voting”. Research & Politics 4 (1): 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053168016686636
Mayka, Lindsay y Amy Smith. 2021. “Introduction. The Grassroots Right in Latin America: Patterns, Causes, and Consequences”. Latin American Politics and Society 63 (3): 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1017/lap.2021.20
Medeiros, Mike y Alain Noël. 2014. “The Forgotten Side of Partisanship: Negative Party Identification in Four Anglo-American Democracies”. Comparative Political Studies 47 (7): 1022-1046. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414013488560
Meléndez, Carlos. 2022. The Post-Partisans: Anti-Partisans, Anti-Establishment Identifiers, and Apartisans in Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Metz, Manon, Sanne Kruikemeier y Sophie Lecheler. 2020. “Personalization of Politics on Facebook: Examining the Content and Effects of Professional, Emotional and Private Self-Personalization”. Information, Communication & Society 23 (10): 1481-1498. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1080/1369118X.2019.1581244
Mitchelstein, Eugenia, Mora Matassi y Pablo J. Boczkowski. 2020. “Minimal Effects, Maximum Panic: Social Media and Democracy in Latin America”. Social Media + Society 6 (4): 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120984452
Montero, Sol. 2024. “Una democracia afectada. Polarización y emociones en el discurso de la nueva derecha argentina en redes sociales”. Revista panamericana de comunicación 6 (1): 2-14. https://doi.org/10.21555/rpc.v6i1.3018
Morgan, Jana. 2011. Bankrupt Representation and Party System Collapse. University Park: Penn State University Press.
Morgan, Jana y Carlos Meléndez. 2016. “Parties Under Stress: Using a Linkage Decay Framework to Analyze the Chilean Party System”. Journal of Politics in Latin America 8 (3): 25-59. https://doi.org/10.1177/1866802X1600800302
Piñeiro-Rodríguez, Rafael, Fernando Rosenblatt, Gabriel Vommaro y Laura Wills-Otero. 2024. Parties and New Technologies in Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Queirolo, Rosario. 2013. The Success of the Left in Latin America. Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press.
Rahat, Gideon y Ofer Kenig. 2018. From Party Politics to Personalized Politics? Party Change and Political Personalization in Democracies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rennó, Lucio. 2020. “The Bolsonaro Voter: Issue Positions and Vote Choice in the 2018 Brazilian Presidential Elections”. Latin American Politics and Society 62 (4): 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1017/lap.2020.13
Ridge, Hannah M. 2020. “Enemy Mine: Negative Partisanship and Satisfaction with Democracy”. Political Behavior 44 (3): 1271-1295. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-020-09658-7
Roberts, Kenneth. 2014. Changing Course in Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rocha-Carpiuc, Cecilia y Verónica Pérez Bentancur. 2025. “Vínculos entre partidos y movimientos feministas en América Latina: el caso de la lucha por el aborto legal en Bolivia”. Colombia Internacional 122: 121-145. https://doi.org/10.7440/colombiaint122.2025.05
Samuels, David y Karine Belarmino. 2024. “Partisan Dehumanization in Brazil’s Asymmetrically Polarized Party System”. Journal of Politics in Latin America 0 (0): 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1177/1866802X241268648
Samuels, David y Cesar Zucco. 2018. Partisans, Antipartisans, and Nonpartisans: Voting Behavior in Brazil. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sánchez-Ancochea, Diego. 2021. “The Surprising Reduction of Inequality During a Commodity Boom: What Do We Learn from Latin America?”. Journal of Economic Policy Reform 24 (2): 95-118. https://doi.org/10.1080/17487870.2019.1628757
Sánchez-Sibony, Omar. 2024. “Why Latin American Parties Are Not Coming Back”. Latin American Politics and Society 66 (3): 164-193. https://doi.org/10.1017/lap.2023.40
Sanchez, Gabriel y Keesha Middlemass. 2022. “Misinformation Is Eroding the Public’s Confidence in Democracy”. The Brookings Institution, 26 de julio. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/misinformation-is-eroding-the-publics-confidence-in-democracy/
Scarrow, Susan. 2014. Beyond Party Members: Changing Approaches to Partisan Mobilization. Oxford: OUP.
Seawright, Jason. 2012. Party-System Collapse: The Roots of Crisis in Peru and Venezuela. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.
Sendra, Mariana y Hugo Marcos-Marne. 2024. “Is Milei a Populist? People and Market in the New Radical Right in Argentina”. Contemporary Politics 30 (5): 639-655. https://doi.org/10.1080/13569775.2024.2311982
Setzler, Mark. 2021. “Did Brazilians Vote for Jair Bolsonaro Because They Share His Most Controversial Views?”. Brazilian Political Science Review 15 (1): e0002. https://doi.org/10.1590/1981-3821202100010006
Tajfel, Henri. 1978. “Social Categorization, Social Identity and Social Comparison”. En Differentiation Between Social Groups: Studies in the Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations, editado por Henri Tajfel, 61-76. Nueva York: Academic Press.
Tarullo, Raquel y Vicente Fenoll. 2023. “‘Long Live Freedom!’: Digital Communication of Argentina’s Emerging Libertarian Populism”. Tripodos 54: 94-112. https://doi.org/10.51698/tripodos.2023.54.01
Turner, John C., Michael A. Hogg, Penelope J. Oakes, Stephen D. Reicher y Margaret Wetherell. 1987. Rediscovering the Social Group: A Self Categorization Theory. Nueva York: Blackwell.
Valenzuela, Sebastián, Nicolás M. Somma, Andrés Scherman y Arturo Arriagada. 2016. “Social Media in Latin America: Deepening or Bridging Gaps in Protest Participation?”. Online Information Review 40 (5): 695-711. https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-11-2015-0347
Van Biezen, Ingrid, Peter Mair y Thomas Poguntke. 2012. “Going, Going... Gone? The Decline of Party Membership in Contemporary Europe”. European Journal of Political Research 51 (1): 24-56. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6765.2011.01995.x
Vlachová, Klára. 2001. “Party Identification in the Czech Republic: Inter-Party Hostility and Party Preference”. Communist and Post-Communist Studies 34 (4): 479-499. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0967-067X(01)00015-0
Vommaro, Gabriel. 2019. “De la construcción partidaria al gobierno: PRO-Cambiemos y los límites del ‘giro a la derecha’ en Argentina”. Colombia Internacional 99: 91-120. https://doi.org/10.7440/colombiaint99.2019.04
Webb, Paul. 1995. “Are British Political Parties in Decline?”. Party Politics 1 (3): 299-322. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354068895001003001
Weyland, Kurt, Raúl Madrid y Wendy Hunter. 2010. Leftist Governments in Latin America. Successes and Shortcomings. Nueva York: Cambridge University Press.
Whiteley, Paul F. 2011. “Is the Party Over? The Decline of Party Activism and Membership across the Democratic World”. Party Politics 17 (1): 21-44. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354068810365505
Zhang, Xinzhi y Wan-Ying Lin. 2018. “Stoking the Fires of Participation: Extending the Gamson Hypothesis on Social Media Use and Elite-Challenging Political Engagement”. Computers in Human Behavior 79: 217-226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.10.036
Zhong, Chen-Bo, Katherine Phillips, Geoffrey Leonardelli y Adam Galinsky. 2008. “Negational Categorization and Intergroup Behavior”. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 34 (6): 793-806. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167208315457
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Diego Luján, Jennifer Cyr
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.