Class and Conservative Parties

Gibson's book works at multiple levels. This is something of a tour de force. -- Rebecca Scott, University of Michigan A first-rate book. It makes a number of contributions to the study of Argentine politics and to comparative work on Latin America. It offers fresh historical perspective on the failure of democracy to take root in Argentina, and provides important new material on the challenges faced by conservative politicians in aggregating diverse sectors of their 'core constituency' while reorienting their political activity toward electoral politics. It is written in a way that will be of considerable interest to comparativists. -- Robert Kaufman, Rutgers University

Gibson presents a comparative examination of conservative party politics in Latin America during the 1980s and 1990s and offers a thoughtful look ahead to conservatism's future in the region.What promotes or hinders the development of conservative parties in Latin America? What does this augur for the stable representation of the propertied and socially privileged in political parties? In Class and Conservative Parties, Edward L. Gibson examines these questions in light of Latin America's long legacies of authoritarianism and democratic instability. Gibson explores these questions theoretically, historically and comparatively. He develops an approach to the comparative study of conservative parties that sheds new theoretical light on the social dynamics of party politics. Historically, he traces the determinants of conservative party development in Argentina, providing a rich analysis of how interactions between conservatism's elite "core constituencies," party leaders, and the state shaped the rise and fall of conservative parties in the 19th and 20th centuries. Gibson also presents a comparative examination of conservative party politics in Latin America during the 1980s and 1990s and offers a thoughtful look ahead to conservatism's future in the region.