Parties in government: political activism, internal centralization and subordination to government leadership

Abstract

This study analyses the change in the internal organization of government parties. Following the theoretical orientation proposed by Norwegian political scientist Kaare Strom on the behavior of political parties in contemporary democracies, the analysis compares the Brazilian Workers' Party, the Front for Victory of Argentina, the Broad Front of Uruguay and Ecuador's Proud and Sovereign Homeland Alliance Movement in their early periods of government. The objective of the study is to analyze the organizational changes of parties in the exercise of government. The study concludes that parties in the exercise of government present a combination of growing political activism, internal centralization and subordination to government leadership, contradicting the theory developed by Strom.