Crafting Mass Partisanship at the Grass Roots, from the Top Down

34 Pages Posted: 16 Jul 2012 Last revised: 2 Aug 2012

See all articles by David J. Samuels

David J. Samuels

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities - Department of Political Science

Cesar Zucco

Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) - Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration (EBAPE)

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: 2012

Abstract

How does mass partisanship emerge? We explore the varying fates of parties in Brazil|a decidedly anti-party environment in which social-cleavages and historical legacies cannot explain the emergence of partisanship|and highlight a heretofore unexplored mechanism of crafting mass partisanship that sets the PT (Workers' Party) apart from other parties: its deliberate e fforts to reach out to organized elements in civil society by expanding its local-level organization. We show that the PT invested where civil society was organizationally dense, and that this led to increased party identi cation and improved electoral performance. Other parties, for path-dependent reasons, did not adopt this tactic and in the context of weak socio-cultural cleavages, have failed to gain partisan support.

Keywords: Brazil, elections, parties, partisanship, party organization

Suggested Citation

Samuels, David J. and Zucco, Cesar, Crafting Mass Partisanship at the Grass Roots, from the Top Down (2012). APSA 2012 Annual Meeting Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2108827

David J. Samuels (Contact Author)

University of Minnesota - Twin Cities - Department of Political Science ( email )

Minneapolis, MN 55455-0410
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.polisci.umn.edu/~dsamuels/

Cesar Zucco

Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) - Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration (EBAPE) ( email )

Praia de Botafogo 190
Rio de Janeiro, RJ
Brazil

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