Changing Course in Latin America

'Kenneth M. Roberts's book provides an outstanding synthetic argument about the impact of the convulsive period of market liberalization on party systems in Latin America, providing a nuanced answer to the question of why this critical juncture generated distinct legacies in some countries and not others. Its perspective will be central to scholarly debates regarding the causes and consequences of the vast changes in patterns of political representation evident in the region today.' Jonathan Hartlyn, Kenneth J. Reckford Professor of Political Science, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

'This theoretical and empirical tour de force uses the study of party system change to provide 'a lens through which to view the broader realignment of social, economic, and political fields during Latin America's turbulent transition to market globalization'. Roberts largely meets these lofty aspirations in a compelling, comprehensive account of party system change in the region.' Ryan E. Carlin, Latin American Research Review

Kenneth M. Roberts is Professor of Government at Cornell University. He is the author of Deepening Democracy?: The Modern Left and Social Movements in Chile and Peru (1998). Roberts is the co-editor of The Diffusion of Social Movements: Actors, Mechanisms, and Political Effects (Cambridge, 2010) and The Resurgence of the Latin American Left (2011). His articles have appeared in the American Political Science Review, World Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Comparative Politics, Latin American Politics and Society, and Studies in Comparative International Development.

1. Introduction: party system change in the neoliberal era; Part I. Explaining Regional Patterns: 2. Partisanship and the puzzle of party system stability; 3. Critical junctures and party system change; 4. Antecedent conditions: party system differentiation in twentieth-century Latin America; 5. Neoliberal critical junctures and party system stability; 6. Programmatic (de-)alignment and party system stability in the aftermath period; Part II. National Experiences in Comparative Perspective: 7. Critical junctures in elitist party systems; 8. Critical junctures in labor-mobilizing party systems; 9. Aftermath: reactive sequences and institutional legacies; 10. Conclusion: political legacies and the crisis of representation; Appendix: election results in Latin America.