Political Parties within Democratic Transitions: Setting the Ground for a New Research Agenda

Thus far the relationship between political parties and democratizations has been approached only as a matter of party system institutionalization during democratic consolidation phases. Yet, recent cases of autocratic collapses demonstrated the salience of parties also as far as transitions in its narrow sense and democratic installations are concerned. In light of this, the present paper makes the point about the necessity of studying political parties also during the earlier phases of the democratic transition, when doing so may appear “less obvious”. As a matter of fact, engaging in this new research agenda will contribute to democratization studies in several ways. Fist, it will further unfold the dynamics, i.e. strategic interactions, underneath democratic transitions and breakdowns. Second, this study will help to disclose the intrinsic nature and functioning of democratic parties, which are far from being mere representative vehicles of pre-constituted social aggregates. Third, and most important, differently from the mainstream studies on the topic, i.e. those on party system institutionalization, this kind of works collocates itself in a temporally and functionally antecedent phase; therefore, it will contribute to illuminate and solve some of the impasses that affects this literature. This is a starting point of huge work that goes beyond the scope and space limitations of the present paper. Here, I will limit to first expose the empirical reasons why this is needed. Secondly, a proposal in how this study might be done will be sketched.