Welcome to the Party:
Fixing the Institutions that Make Democracy Work
Across Latin America, political parties are in crisis. Widely viewed as corrupt, self-serving, and fleeting, they now rank among the region’s least trusted institutions. This is not just a political problem—it’s a democratic one. No democracy can function without them.
Let’s fix this.
Everyone Hates Political Parties. Rightly So.
According to
Latinobarómetro,
Only 17% of Latin Americans trust political parties. They are the least trusted political institutions in the region.
(Latinobarómetro, 2024)
LAPOP,
Only 30% of Latin Americans express trust in legislatures. This is largely driven by mistrust in political parties.
(Vanderbilt University – LAPOP, 2023)
and
other sources,
The UNDP finds that while trust in government is declining across the region, trust in political parties has fallen even further—and at a faster rate.
(UNDP, 2022)
political parties consistently rank at the bottom of trust indicators across the region. Many now ask whether parties even matter. And in much of the region, their skepticism is justified.
Today, Latin America is crowded with:
- Fragile, hollow organizations lacking ideology or platforms;
- Personalistic movements dominated by a single candidate or
Caudillo
Historically military men, Caudillos is a Latin American term for ‘strongmen’. Often charismatic, their hold on power depended on control over armed followers, patronage, and vigilance.
Britannica, 2024 ; - Electoral vehicles that serve private or illicit interests;
- Ideologically-empty and transactional coalitions stitched together to win power.
In this environment, it is often impossible to know what parties—or their candidates—actually stand for, what they intend to do, or how they plan to govern. Once elected, they prove to be short-sighted, ineffective and dysfunctional.
The result is a cycle of volatility: parties come and go, alliances shift, legislatures stall, and policies lack coherence. This comes at a
high cost to citizens.
Research from the International Monetary Fund and the Peterson Institute for International Economics shows that political instability and lack of policy continuity can cost countries millions of dollars in lost growth and economic development.
IMF (2010) |
PIIE (2022)
In just five years, Peru's party system has collapsed—leaving its democracy fragile and government adrift.
Peru once had around six parties in Congress—about what most political scientists consider manageable for stable governance. Today, Congress holds 16 different parties. In the 2021 presidential race, 18 candidates ran. The winner secured just 15% of the vote in the first round.
Since 2020, Peru has had five presidents—despite holding only one election. No leader has commanded genuine public or legislative support, fueling instability. Unsurprisingly, trust in democracy has fallen. Today, just 9% of Peruvians trust political parties—the lowest rate in Latin America.
And things are getting worse. In 2026, 43 presidential candidates will appear on a 65 cm ballot—roughly the width of a 50-inch TV. With so many names and weak parties behind them, voters are left guessing: Who are these people? What do they stand for? How will they manage to govern?
This isn’t choice—it’s chaos.
But the problem isn’t parties themselves, but what kind of parties exist.
Parties Matter.
Love them or hate them, political parties are the cornerstone of democracy.
No modern democracy has ever succeeded without strong, representative political parties. They serve as the institutional bridge between society and the state: parties translate ideas into policies, select leaders, and ensure that citizens are represented and heard.
Only a small number of people will ever hold elected office, but through political parties, the many can influence the few.
- Party Government by Schattschneider (1942)
- Why Parties? by Aldrich (1995)
- Parties and Party Systems by Sartori (1976)
- Building Democratic Institutions by Mainwaring & Scully (1995)
- The End of the Transition Paradigm by Carothers (2002)
- Democracy Without Parties? by Levitsky & Cameron (2003)
- Party System Institutionalization by Mainwaring & Torcal (2006)
- The Shift from Party to Personality Politics by Zaino & Herrera (2024)
- Structure electoral competition, helping voters understand who stands for what.
- Represent societal interests, linking individuals and groups to the political system.
- Organize government, enabling coalition-building and coherent policymaking.
- Enable accountability, allowing members to reward or punish leaders.
- Recruit and train leaders, fostering the development of competent and democratic leadership.
When parties don’t—or can’t—do these things, democracies falter.
So, What Kind of Parties Does Latin America Need?
To rebuild public trust in parties—and in democracy itself—Latin America must move beyond fleeting, personalistic political vehicles. The region needs parties that are programmatic, institutionalized, and responsible.
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Programmatic parties are not built around individuals. They exist to advance a program—a coherent set of policies, values, and interests. They offer voters clear proposals in the form of manifestos and policy priorities ahead of elections. By maintaining ideological consistency over time, they allow citizens to understand where a candidate stands on major issues based on party affiliation.
In Canada, voters know what to expect when they vote for the center-left Liberal Party or the center-right Conservative Party. Whether in national or local elections, party labels carry meaning, and that matters.
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Institutionalized parties are grounded on internal rules, procedures, and democratic governance. They are not shaped by the ambitions of a single individual, but function as stable platforms for collective political participation. These parties conduct regular leadership elections, ensure that members have a meaningful role in internal decision-making, and endure beyond any one leader—maintaining their identity, coherence, and relevance over time.
Austria’s Social Democratic Party, founded in 1889, has adapted across generations of leadership, while upholding internal structures and organizational consistency.
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Responsible parties understand that winning is not the ultimate goal, and losing is not an existential threat. They engage constructively—whether in government or opposition—by upholding institutional norms and prioritizing long-term objectives over short-term political gains. Above all, they do not seek to undermine democracy when they win or lose.
In Denmark, the left-wing Red–Green Alliance and the right-wing Danish People’s Party, both founded in the 1990s, have never been in government. Yet both have played significant roles in shaping legislation and coalitions, advancing their policy agendas from opposition or through selective cooperation with governing parties on the left or right.
This project explores how Latin America can build better parties and, as a result, better democracies. By identifying the causes of party system failure and spotlighting promising models, it aims to support academics, activists, and citizens who are ready to rebuild the foundations of representative democracy.
Strong parties make democracy work. Democracy, in turn, needs parties worth believing in.
The Mission.
Plural is a platform for research, analysis, and reform, focused on rebuilding representative democracy in Latin America.
COMING SOON