Party-System Collapse

Jason Seawright is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University.

"The author [...] does a good job in marshalling the considerable amounts of empirical evidence necessary to sustain his argument . . . Seawright's book is interesting and deserves considerable scholarly attention. It takes two spectacular case studies and uses them to add significantly to the wealth of existing literature on political parties."—George Philip, Bulletin of Spanish Studies "Party-System Collapse opens important new avenues of research. The psychological experiment is particularly innovative, and the original survey of local party leaders in three countries will be helpful to social scientists for decades. The analyses of the implications of corruption scandals and of ideological under-representation are important contributions to the study of Latin American politics."—Cynthia McClintock, Journal of Latin American Studies "Seawright provides a systematic analysis of the collapse of the established political party system in Peru and Venezuela during the 1980s and 1990s, using extensive statistical measurement of public opinion to determine the apparent causes of the abrupt downfall of the dominant political parties . . . Recommended."—S. L. Rozman, CHOICE "Seawright offers the best explanation I've read for the collapse of party systems in Peru and Venezuela. He succeeds in coherently weaving together many factors—psychological, economic, institutional, ideological—with sophisticated methodology, and also provides an exemplary study of the roles of leadership and mass opinion in regime change."—Michael Coppedge, University of Notre Dame "Seawright frames an intriguing question. Why did the party system, in the context of economic difficulties, collapse in Peru and Venezuela, while pressing economic problems in Argentina in 2001 did not produce the same results? The author attributes the phenomenon to voter anger over corruption and the failure of the established political parties to represent their viewpoints on the ideological spectrum. In contrast, Argentina's Peronist party adapted to the new political landscape after the failure of neoliberalism, and consequently the nation averted party breakdown. Seawright grounds his conclusions on a wealth of empirical evidence. This book is comparative politics at its best."—Steve Ellner, author of Rethinking Venezuelan Politics: Class, Polarization and the Chávez Phenomenon