Multi-Level Party Systems and the Quality of Democracy : A New Typology of Parties and Party Systems in Latin America

Party competition is typically studied at the national level. In multilevel systems, this is an important shortcoming, because the interactions between parties and party systems at different levels of government have relevant effects on the way in which democratic institutions are distributed across a territory and on the quality of democracy – a key concern in regions such as Latin America, which have suffered almost constant economic stress and political hardship. This paper explores the multilevel party system dynamics in a sample of Latin American federal and unitary cases (Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, and Venezuela). It aims to provide new conceptualizations of multilevel party competition and a theoretical account of party politics understood in terms both of political parties and party systems. We develop a typology based on the congruence/incongruence of party systems and the presence/absence of non-traditional parties to characterize party competition in multilevel systems as either: (a) traditional congruent; (b) traditional incongruent; (c) non-traditional congruent; or (d) non-traditional incongruent. The resulting types are hypothesized to present different challenges and opportunities for the future prospects of the quality of democratic practices. Non-traditional incongruent party systems present the most coordination problems for political parties aiming to articulate and aggregate citizens' demands. In Latin America, a region riddled with economic and social problems, paying attention to political parties and the way in which they are distributed throughout the territory is crucial to account for the consolidation of democracy in these countries