
Millions of enfranchised people live in abject poverty in democracies around the world. Yet in representative democracies, the success or failure of political parties rests on their ability to effectively engage voters. In today's highly unequal and individualized societies, the diversity of voters along socioeconomic, religious, and other lines presents an obstacle for parties vying for electoral success. How, then, can widespread, crushing poverty still exist in stable democracies, if every citizen has a vote? Two wildly different parties, Chile's right-wing UDI and Uruguay's left-wing Frente Amplio, have achieved stunning victories in this supposedly inhospitable political landscape. They have done so by simultaneously segmenting and strategically harmonizing their linkages to distinct cross-sections of voters in each society. While that electoral strategy makes for a winning hand for parties in fragmented modern societies, it perpetuates the gross inequalities that characterize the social, political, and economic landscapes of the developing democratic world. This book develops a new analytical and conceptual framework to unveil and explain segmented representation, revealing new implications for democratic societies. Oxford Studies in Democratization is a series for scholars and students of comparative politics and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on the comparative study of the democratization process that accompanied the decline and termination of the cold war. The geographical focus of the series is primarily Latin America, the Caribbean, Southern and Eastern Europe, and relevant experiences in Africa and Asia. The series editor is Laurence Whitehead, Official Fellow, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
This book investigates how political parties in highly unequal democracies maintain electoral success while simultaneously perpetuating social and economic disparities. Juan Pablo Luna, a professor of political science, utilizes a comparative framework to analyze the strategies of Chile's UDI and Uruguay's Frente Amplio. He argues that these parties employ a mechanism of 'segmented representation,' which involves creating distinct, harmonized linkages to specific voter cross-sections to navigate fragmented societies.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Scholars in comparative politics recognize this work as a significant contribution to the study of party systems in developing democracies. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which is tailored for students and researchers of political science.
Page Count:
400
Publication Date:
2014-01-01
Publisher:
OUP Oxford
ISBN-10:
0191612049
ISBN-13:
9780191612046
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