In this book event, Kent Eaton, Eduardo Silva, and Virginia Oliveros will discuss Gabriel Vommaro’s new volume, “Conservatives Against the Tide. (Elements in Politics and Society in Latin America)” (Cambridge University Press, 2023).

The volume addresses the success of conservative parties in non-authoritarian contexts in contemporary Latin America. It places the core case of Argentina’s Republican Proposal (PRO) party in comparative perspective with Argentina’s Recrear and with Colombia’s Democratic Center party and the Bolivia’s Social Democratic Movement in an effort to understand their differing degrees of success in adverse circumstances. Based on long-term research using a variety of methods, this Element shows that success has been driven by three factors: programmatic innovation by personalistic leaders; organizational mobilization of both core and noncore constituencies; and elite fear of the ‘Venezuela model.’