The Importance of Political Parties in a Democracy

The reading this week focus mainly on the importance of political parties in democracies and how the lack of political parties in Peru and other Latin American nations make them less credible ass democracies. The Authors address three topics; 1) Fujimori’s reforms that led to more power for himself and less support to the established parties. 2) Replacing parties with independents who have short-term interests, which revokes O’Donnell’s “Horizontal Accountability” and makes it difficult to mobilize against the regime. 3) Rebuilding the parties is difficult because of new mass media technology and the growth of the urban informal sector, which diminished the importance of old urban, labor and industry cleavages.

Fujimori was able to stabilize the country’s economy and end hyperinflation through free market reforms. Although many leaders in Latin America tried to reach the same outcome, none of which were able to actually accommodate to their promises except for Fujimori. Today, Peru’s new President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski is faced with a tough time in office since Fujimori’s daughter was his opposition during elections. Ms. Fujimori’s party, popular force, controls the majority of congresses seats and has veto power over the President. President Kuczynski presented a program that would prioritize safe drinking water to all homes, high quality public education, universal healthcare, ending informal employment, better infrastructure and policies to fight corruption and discrimination.