Construction of electoral coalitions in denationalized scenarios. A theoretical approach

Abstract

In scenarios of party fragmentation and denationalization, such as those gener-ated in the last two decades in Latin America, the political formula privileged by party leaders has been the formation of electoral coalitions. These are agreements constructed and based on the strategic decisions of the party elites. In multi-level political systems, they can be studied as stages of building a house of cards: each political party represents a card, which is connected to others and establishes the bases of upper levels to continue the construction process. This article seeks to fill a gap in the study of these phenomena, proposing a theoretical framework that is useful for its analysis. I understand electoral coalitions as being formed either following a ‘territo-rial penetration strategy’, from a political centre that establishes guidelines, conditions and timings of the political agreement; or by a ‘territorial diffusion strategy’ between parties that are already present in a large part of the territory. I establish the general guidelines of the theory, along with the incentives and the limitations that arise. The theoretical construction is considered in relation to a case study of Argentina (1983-2015), highlighting its potential to be applied to other similar multilevel political systems.