"More often than not, contemporary works on political parties start by referring to Schattschneider's now famous dictum concerning democracy's need for political parties. At the same time, many authors have identified parties that, in democratic contexts, fail in various ways to fulfill the function of democratic representation. Mainstream political science has defined a political party as a group of candidates who compete in elections (Downs 1957, Schlesinger 1994, among many others). This minimal definition has important analytical implications. When analyzing electoral politics, we run the risk of looking for parties - and thus, finding them - without realizing that what we have found, empirically, is only weakly related to democratic representation"--

1. Introduction Juan Pablo Luna, Rafael Piñeiro Rodríguez, Fernando Rosenblatt and Gabriel Vommaro; 2. The Case of Uruguay's Frente Amplio Verónica Pérez Bentancur, Rafael Piñeiro Rodríguez and Fernando Rosenblatt; 3. Horizontal coordination and vertical aggregation mechanisms of the PRO in Argentina and its subnational variations Gabriel Vommaro; 4. Bolivia's Movement Toward Socialism (MAS): A Political Party Based on and Anchored in Social Movements Santiago Anria; 5. The complex interaction between vertical interest aggregation and horizontal coordination: The PRD and MORENA in Mexico Hélène Combes; 6. PLN and PAC: Two Costa Rican parties with evolving constituencies in opposite directions Ronald Alfaro-Redondo and Steffan Gómez-Campos; 7. The Case of the Traditional Parties in Paraguay Diego Abente Brun; 8. The Colombian Liberal Party and Conservative Party: From Political Parties to Diminished Subtypes Laura Wills-Otero, Bibiana Ortega and Viviana Sarmiento; 9. 'Normal' Parties in Extraordinary Times: The Case of Primero Justicia and Voluntad Popular in Venezuela Jennifer Cyr; 10. Diminished by Design: Ecuador's Alianza PAIS Catherine M. Conaghan; 11. The Chilean PPD: A Loose Confederation of Leaders Rafael Piñeiro Rodríguez, Fernando Rosenblatt and Sergio Toro Maureira; 12. Fujimorismo and the Limits of Democratic Representation in Peru Alberto Vergara and María Claudia Augusto; 13. The Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza: Guatemala's Only True Political Party? Omar Sanchez-Sibony and Jonatán Lemus; 14. Conclusions Juan Pablo Luna, Rafael Piñeiro Rodríguez, Fernando Rosenblatt and Gabriel Vommaro.