It is always difficult to tackle issues of contemporary politics in Latin America, where information is scarce and the situation is fluid. This book is a valiant attempt to understand why voters abandoned their support for traditional political parties in Peru and Venezuela and decided instead to back nontraditional political organizations. The author was prompted to investigate this phenomenon because he felt that political science had failed in its analysis of traditional political party collapse in the region. As a result, he spends some time arguing convincingly that economic collapse does not necessarily equate, as some have argued, to a change in the traditional party system. Consequently, the author feels that poor representation of the electorate is the key to understanding the dynamics of traditional party collapse. Central to his thesis is the role played by corruption, which together with poor ideological representation is the main reason for the demise...
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