Suchergebnisse

This article attempts to fill the void in research on the Justicialista Party
(PJ) organisation. Challenging accounts of the contemporary PJ as a weak,
personalistic organisation, it argues that the party maintains a powerful base-level
infrastructure with deep roots in working- and lower-class society. This
organisation has been understated by scholars because, unlike prototypical
working class party structures, it is informal and highly decentralised. The PJ
organisation consists of a range of informal networks – based on unions, clubs,
NGOs and activists' homes that are largely unconnected to the party bureaucracy.
These organisations provided the government of Carlos Menem with a range of
benefits in the 1990s, particularly in the realm of local problem-solving and
patronage distribution. Yet they also constrained the Menem leadership, limiting
its capacity to impose candidates and strategies on lower-level party branches.

The following books are discussed: 1. Taking on Goliath: The Emergence of a New Left Party and the Struggle for Democracy in Mexico, by Kathleen Bruhn, 2. Strong Parties and Lame Ducks; Presidential Partyarchy and Factionalism in Venezuela, by Michael Coppedge, 3. Rethinking Party Systems in the Third Wave of Democratization: The Case of Brazil, by Scott P. Mainwaring, 4. Peronism Without Peron: Unions, Parties, and Democracy in Argentina, by James W. McGuire, and 5. Deepening Democracy? The Modern Left and Social Movements in Chile and Peru, by Kenneth M. Roberts.

Levitsky, S. (2001). Una "Des-Organización Organizada": organización informal y persistencia de estructuras partidarias locales en el peronismo argentino. Revista de ciencias sociales, (12), 7-62. ; El Partido Justicialista (PJ) o "peronista" argentino representa desde hace tiempo un misterio para los analistas. Si bien su fuerza electoral está más allá de toda discusión, la debilidad e inactividad de la burocracia partidaria y de los cuerpos formales dirigenciales ha llevado a numerosos estudiosos a describir la organización de este partido como inexistente. Asimismo, algunos especialistas descalificaron al partido peronista original como un "cadáver" o como "poco más que un apéndice de las instituciones estatales" y en el mismo sentido, el PJ contemporáneo ha sido descripto como un "simple membrete" o un "comité electoral" dirigido por un pequeño círculo de "operadores" en Buenos Aires.

The economic crises and adjustment processes of the last decade have fundamentally challenged Latin American parties, altering established policy parameters and straining traditional social coalitions. The question of whether or not established parties successfully adapt to these changes is critical to democratic stability, for when parties fail and party systems decompose, democratic regimes often become vulnerable. This article examines a case of successful party adaptation: the (Peronist) Justicialista Party (PJ) in Argentina. Since 1989, a Peronist government has implemented a set of neoliberal reforms that run directly counter to Peronism's traditional populist program. Yet despite this shift, the PJ has retained its mass base. After briefly outlining the internal changes in the PJ since the mid-1980s, the article seeks to explain the party's adaptive capacity. It argues that the PJ's adaptation was facilitated by a distinctive configuration of organizational features: an under-institutionalized party hierarchy and an entrenched mass base. This combination of features permitted rapid change at the party leadership level, while at the same time helping to ensure a stable base of support.