Why do new parties thrive in some cases but fail in others? This is the main question addressed by the volume Challenges of Party Building in Latin America, edited by Steven Levitsky, James Loxton, Brandon Van Dyck and Jorge Domínguez. The question is highly relevant for democratic politics in general and issues of governance and representation in particular. In today's world, in which politicians are deeply mistrusted and citizens profoundly disenchanted with politics, parties might seem like outdated vehicles to organise political competition, but they are as consequential as ever for making democracy work.

The volume studies variation in Latin America's party-building experiences since 1978, the beginning of the third wave of democratisation. The introduction to the volume, written by Levitsky, Loxton and Van Dyck, advances a conflict-based approach to party-building, which sets the stage for the remaining chapters. Contrary to the notion that democratic competition will naturally serve as a fertile ground for the emergence of successful, resilient parties, the chapter points instead to periods of intense polarisation, large-scale popular mobilisation and even violence or repression as conducive to the emergence of durable parties.

This is because, as the authors convincingly argue, such events as social revolution, civil war, authoritarian repression and sustained popular mobilisation contribute to the emergence of three key factors for party building: strong partisan identities, territorial organisation and organisational cohesion. By strengthening partisan attachments, encouraging partisan differentiation and promoting organisation-building, these events generate the building blocks required for electorally appealing, long-lasting parties.

Levitsky, Loxton and Van Dyck reach this conclusion after systematically analysing all parties created in the region since 1978. Based on a threshold for success of obtaining 10 per cent of the vote in five consecutive legislative elections and surviving their founding leader's departure, the authors identify 11 cases of successful party building in the region since the onset of the third wave. This represents only 4 per cent of 255 new parties that have reached at least 1 per cent of national legislative vote in one election.

The analysis reveals not only that successful party building has been extremely unusual, but also puts forth three important claims. First, successful parties have emerged mainly in the aftermath of civil wars or toward the end of bureaucratic authoritarian regimes. Second, while party-building efforts benefit from patronage for resources, access to the state can also reduce politicians’ incentives to invest in institution building. Third, contrary to the conventional wisdom that populist leaders undermine parties, populists can paradoxically strengthen parties in the long run because of their polarising effects on society.

The rest of the volume is roughly organised along the lines of these features of successful parties. A first set of chapters discusses the development of party brands and party–voter linkages. Kenneth Roberts focuses on how the critical juncture of neoliberal structural adjustment punished left-of-centre parties in office and rewarded those in opposition. Noam Lupu offers a theory of party brand development based on programmatic differentiation and consistency. Juan Pablo Luna highlights the importance of crafting segmented appeals to different sectors of society.

A second set examines organisation building with an emphasis on the role of the state and political regimes. Brandon Van Dyck shows that new leftist parties have been more successful under authoritarianism than under democracy. Kenneth Greene highlights challenges facing new parties born during authoritarianism. Paula Muñoz and Eduardo Dargent underscore the importance of patronage as a source of resources. Kathleen Bruhn finds that public funding contributes to shore up emerging parties.

A third group focuses on organisational inheritance. James Loxton highlights the importance of brands and resources inherited from authoritarian regimes. Alisha Holland examines the benefits of winning local offices for insurgent successor parties. Raúl Madrid highlights both the difficulties of building ethnic parties because of low resources and fluid identities and the appeal of ethno-populism. David Samuels and Cesar Zucco Jr emphasise civil society recruitment as a key strategy for the Workers’ Party (PT) in Brazil. William Barndt studies how private firms’ resources can shore up corporation-based parties.

A fourth cluster discusses failed and prospective cases of party building. Kent Eaton studies the eastern autonomy movement's attempt to build a party in Bolivia. Steven Levitsky and Mauricio Zavaleta address the lack of party building in post-Fujimori Peru, arguing that the party system's collapse in that country resulted in the crystallisation of anti-party behaviour among politicians. Jorge Domínguez advances possible party-building scenarios if a transition were to take place in Cuba.

In the final chapter, Jorge Domínguez takes a broader, historical look at successful party building. The chapter reinforces the conclusion that the region's prominent parties have been built through resources, socialisation linkages and self-dealing, rather than principles, programmes or policies.

The volume sets a high bar for the study of party building. Readers seeking an alternative to the widely held, institutionalist view that democratic contestation and electoral rules lead to party building will find the volume's findings refreshing. Further, contrary to the pessimistic picture from recent scholarship on the decline of parties and party systems in the region, the volume presents a more optimistic view based on unintended party-building consequences of populist leaders.

As with any good volume that brings together such an impressive range of authors and perspectives, there are unresolved tensions across chapters and unanswered question that will have to be addressed through future research. For example, the volume's treatment of the role of party brands seemed hard to pin down. Depending on the chapter, preserving the party brand was at times understood as ideological consistency and in other instances as embracing a catch-all ambiguity in order to survive. Similarly, future research will have to delve deeper into the lingering question of why, if several new parties are exposed to the same rough waters of polarisation and mobilisation in a given country, some manage to float while others sink. In this sense, the volume not only presents convincing evidence throughout but also sets the stage for further inquiry into this crucial topic.

In short, this volume is an outstanding piece of scholarship addressing an extremely consequential topic for the quality of democracy. Readers interested in parties, party systems, social cleavages and democratic institutions will find the conclusions novel and enlightening. It will no doubt become a mandatory reference for students of political parties in Latin America and beyond, as well as an influential voice in the debate about the role of leadership, institutions and macro-historical events.