Machine politics and democracy: The deinstitutionalization of the Argentine party system

Government and Opposition

Volumn 43, Issue 4, 2008, Pages 579-598

  Scherlis, Gerardo ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 52949094233     PISSN: 0017257X     EISSN: 14777053     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1477-7053.2008.00269.x     Document Type: Article

References (49)

1. The author would like to thank Maria Spirova, Petr Kopecký and two anonymous referees for insightful suggestions and comments. I am also grateful to the Alban Programme of the European Commission for financial support.
2. James Scott Corruption, Machine Politics, and Political Change American Political Science Review, 63 : 4 (1969 pp. 1142 58
3. Patronage of the Past and Future: Legislators' Decision to Impeach President Estrada of the Philippines Pacific Review, 18 : 4 (2005 pp. 521 40.
4. Juan Linz The Perils of Presidentialism Journal of Democracy, 1 : 1 (1990 pp. 51 69.
5. ' Latin American Presidencies Interrupted Journal of Democracy, 15 : 4 (2004 pp. 5 19.
6. Carolyn Warner Political Parties and the Opportunity Costs of Patronage Party Politics, 3 : 4 (1997 pp. 533 48.
7. Susan Stokes discusses this subject in reference to the implementation of neoliberal policies in Latin America during the 1990s, in Mandates and Democracy. Neoliberalism by Surprise in Latin America, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2001.
8. Michael McDonald and Ian Budge, Elections, Parties, Democracy. Conferring the Median Mandate, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 4.
9. Mainwaring and Scully mention stability in the pattern of party competition as the first requirement for the institutionalization of a party system. The other three features of an institutionalized party system are that: parties have strong roots in society, i.e. most voters feel connected to a party and people easily identify what the different parties stand for; parties are accorded legitimacy, which suggests that citizens trust in parties as institutions; and party organizations are solid, possessing a status and value of their own, which implies that they are not just vehicles for political entrepreneurs. Scott Mainwaring and Timothy Scully, 'Introduction', in S. Mainwaring and T. Scully (eds), Building Democratic Institutions. Party Systems in Latin America, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1995, pp. 2-34.
10. Deborah Norden Party Relations and Democracy in Latin America Party Politics, 4 : 4 (1998 pp. 423 443.
11. Richard Katz The Problem of Candidate Selection and Models of Party Democracy Party Politics, 7 : 3 (2001 pp. 277 96.
12. Alex Weingrod Patrons, Patronage, and Political Parties Comparative Studies in Society and History, 7 : 3 (1968 pp. 377 400
13. van Biezen Petr Kopecký The State and the Parties: Public Funding, Public Regulation, and Rent Seeking in Contemporary Democracies Party Politics, 13 : 2 (2007 pp. 235 54.
14. On the different uses of patronage see Frank Sorauf, 'The Silent Revolution in Patronage', in Edward Banfield (ed.), Urban Government, New York, Free Press, 1969, pp. 376-87;
15. Scott Mainwaring, Rethinking Party Systems in the Third Wave of Democratization, Stanford, Stanford University Press, pp. 180-207.
16. The increasing importance of patronage as control of policy-making in established democracies is noted by Petr Kopecký and Peter Mair, 'Political Parties and Patronage in Contemporary Democracies: An Introduction', paper prepared for the ECPR Joint Sessions, Nicosia, 25-30 April 2006.
17. Even when both sides perceive the exchange as mutually beneficial, the clientelist linkage entails a strong element of inequality, which is preserved and reproduced by the nature of the exchange. See Mainwaring, Rethinking Party Systems, pp. 177-80;
18. John Martz, The Politics of Cllientelism, New Brunswick, Transaction, 1997, pp. 8-12.
19. For a different perspective about 'inequality' as a defining feature of clientelism see Piattoni, 'Clientelism in Historical and Comparative Perspective'.
20. Javier Auyero, Poor People's Politics, Durham, NC, Duke University Press, 2000.
21. Thomas Lancaster David Paterson Comparative Pork Barrel Politics Comparative Political Studies, 22 : 4 (1990 pp. 458 77.
22. See Barry Ames, Political Survival. Politicians and Public Policy in Latin America, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1987, pp. 103-39.
23. Robert Kaufman The Patron-Client Concept and Macro-Politics: Prospects and Problems Comparative Studies in Society and History, 16 : 3 (1974 pp. 284 308.
24. Steven Levitsky, Transforming Labor-Based Parties in Latin America: Argentine Peronism in Comparative Perspective, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 123.
25. Raymond Wolfinger Why Political Machines Have Not Withered Away and Other Revisionist Thoughts Journal of Politics, 34 (1972 pp. 365 98.
26. Ana M. Mustapic, 'Oscillating Relations: President and Congress in Argentina', in Scott Morgenstern and Benito Nacif (eds), Legislative Politics in Latin America, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp. 23-47.
27. Kent Eaton, Politics Beyond the Capital: The Design of Subnational Institutions in South America, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2004, pp. 141-54.
28. Mark Jones and Wonjae Hwang, 'Provincial Party Bosses: Keystone of the Argentine Congress', in Steven Levitsky and María V. Murillo (eds), Argentine Democracy. The Politics of Institutional Weakness, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2005, p. 123.
29. Miguel de Luca, Mark Jones María Inés Tula Back Room or Ballot Boxes? Candidate Nomination in Argentina Comparative Political Studies, 35 : 4 (2002 pp. 413 36.
30. Miguel de Luca, Mark Jones and María Inés Tula, 'Machine Politics and Party Primaries: The Uses and Consequences of Primaries within a Clientelist Political System', paper prepared for the conference of the Mobilizing Democracy Group of the American Political Science Association, New York, January 2006.
31. Edward Gibson Ernesto Calvo Federalism and Low-maintenance Constituencies: The Territorial Dimension of Economic Reform in Argentina Studies in Comparative International Development, 35 : 5 (2000 pp. 32 55.
32. Mark Jones, 'Explaining the High Level of Party Discipline in the Argentine Congress', in Morgenstern and Nacif, Legislative Politics in Latin America, pp. 147-84.
33. See David Rock, Politics in Argentina, 1890-1930: The Rise and Fall of Radicalism, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1975.
34. Mercedes Botto, 'La relación partido y gobierno en la Argentina contemporánea. Análisis del proceso de toma de decisiones de los gobiernos de Alfonsín y Menem', PhD thesis, Florence, EUI, 1997.
35. Luis A. Romero, A History of Argentina in the Twentieth Century, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002, pp. 264-5.
36. Mariana Llanos Understanding Presidential Power in Argentina: A Study of the Policy of Privatisation in the 1990s Journal of Latin American Studies, 33 : 1 (2001 pp. 67 99.
37. Levitsky, Transforming Labor-Based Parties, pp. 186-216.
38. Levitsky, Transforming Labor-Based Parties, Ibid., pp. 228-30.
39. Steven Levitsky María V. Murillo Argentina Weathers the Storm Journal of Democracy, 14 : 4 (2003 pp. 152 66.
40. Enrique Peruzzotti, 'Demanding Accountable Government: Citizens, Politicians, and the Perils of Representative Democracy in Argentina', in Levitsky and Murillo, Argentine Democracy, pp. 229-49.
41. Sources: Support of the legislative blocs: Botto, 'La relación partido y gobierno en la Argentina contemporánea';
42. Llanos, 'Understanding Presidential Power in Argentina'; Clarín newspaper 11 and 12 May 2000.
43. Confidence in political parties: 1983-88, Edgardo Catterberg, Argentina Confronts Politics: Political Culture and Public Opinion in the Argentine Transition to Democracy, Boulder, Lynne Rienner, 1991, p. 56; 1995-2000, Latinobarometro reports.
44. Kirchner's approval ratings hovered around 70 per cent during his four-year term. He eventually declined to run for re-election in October 2007 to promote his wife's candidacy. Unsurprisingly, she won an easy victory with 45 per cent of the vote against 23 per cent for the runner-up.
45. In this regard, see Isidoro Cheresky, La Política después de los Partidos, Buenos Aires, Prometeo Libros, 2006.
46. For the 1984 figures, see Catterberg, Argentina Confronts Politics, p. 56.
47. For the figures of party system institutionalization in the mid-1990s see Mainwaring and Scully, 'Introduction', p. 17.
48. As for recent figures of Latin American party systems institutionalization see Mark Jones, 'The Roles of Parties and Party Systems in the Policymaking Process', paper presented at the workshop on State Reform, Public Policies, and Policymaking Processes, Inter-American Development Bank, Washington, DC, 28 February-2 March 2005.
49. David Samuels From Socialism to Social Democracy: Party Organization and the Transformation of the Workers' Party in Brazil Comparative Political Studies, 37 : 9 (2004 pp. 999 1024.