James Loxton, Conservative Party-Building in Latin America: Authoritarian Inheritance and Counterrevolutionary Struggle (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021), pp. xxi + 279, £47.99 hb.

Abstract

This book makes very important, original contributions to the study of conservative party-building in Latin America since the 1980s. James Loxton focuses specifically on a subset of conservative political parties: ‘ authoritarian successor parties ’ (ASPs), parties ‘ that emerge from authoritarian regimes but that operate after a transition to democracy ’ (p. 2). He contrasts the longer-term electoral success of two conservative ASPs, Unión Demócrata Independiente (Independent Democratic Union, UDI) in Chile and Alianza Republicana Nacionalista (Nationalist Republican Alliance, ARENA) in El Salvador, with the shorter trajectories of two conservative parties without close ties to prior authoritarian regimes, Unión del Centro