Movement parties in Latin America: scopes and limits of the concept

Abstract

Kitschelt defines "movement-party" as "coalitions of political activists who emanate from social movements and attempt to apply the [...] practices of movements in the arena of party competition." Movement-parties would be ephemeral phenomena of a hybrid and unstable nature that address a restricted set of issues through repertoires of "intra- and extra-institutional" action. At the moment of the party's founding, there is no investment in internal organization, with organizational institutionalization occurring [only] later. Based on this, we seek to answer the following questions: what are the limits and possibilities of the movement-party concept for understanding recent cases in Latin America, and what complementary categories prove necessary? We focus on the cases of the Workers' Party (Brazil) and the Movimiento Al Socialismo – Instrumento Político para la Soberanía de los Pueblos (Bolivia), which were created in close connection with social movements, reached the national Executive branch, and, over the years, acquired governability and a certain stability in power. The study adopts a combined methodological approach: (1) a systematic review of the literature on movement-parties, contrasting traditional texts with more contemporary ones, with the aim of mapping a theoretical framework and assessing whether (or to what extent) the "movement-party" concept is applicable to different cases; (2) analysis of the two cases. For the comparison, we are guided by a historical-comparative method. We find that movement-parties tend to experience internal crises due to their hybridity, with personalism being the main factor of instability. Thus, the concept is only partially pertinent for understanding these cases, making it necessary to adopt other categories such as "movement-based parties." MAS-IPSP and PT draw attention to the strength of context in shaping movement-parties.