Tesis Doctorado
How to party? Static and dynamic party survival in latin american consolidated democracies
Autor
Luna, Juan Pablo
Weyland, Kurt
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Institución
Resumen
How do political parties remain significant and vibrant organizations? This comparative study of political parties in Chile, Costa Rica, and Uruguay explains how parties’ vibrancy is maintained and reproduced over time. The study identifies the complex interaction between four causal conditions: Exit, Trauma, Purpose, and Ambition. These conditions are jointly sufficient for explaining the difference between two types of party survival, dynamic and static. Dynamic parties are more resilient. They are stable over time and, unlike statically surviving parties, also remain vibrant. When the four conditions are present, parties exhibit dynamic survival. Other combinations also explain this type of party survival, albeit to a lesser degree. The conjunction of Exit, Trauma, and Purpose is also sufficient for dynamic survival, as is Exit together with Ambition. These combinations, however, produce dynamic survival less reliably. Tracing these conditions historically over time in each party examined, the analysis also shows that Trauma and Purpose temporally precede Exit and Ambition. Collective organizations are more resilient and vibrant if they are first united by retrospective or prospective loyalty (respectively activated by Trauma and Purpose). However, Exit and Ambition need to then follow to facilitate a party’s dynamic survival over time.