ABSTRACT
We explore the shifting role of parties in mediating civic life with government, how traditional and social media has somewhat displaced the parties in this function, and the shifting conceptions of the “left” and the “right” in the region. We suggest an imperfect but useful classification of the bewildering array of parties in Latin America: “dinosaur” parties that have roots in earlier eras; personalist parties formed around the ambitions of politicians; and recent populist parties, with subcategories of leftist (Pink Tide) and of right-wing parties, some of them authoritarian.
