Expanding Electoral Coalitions: Conservative Parties in Argentina and Mexico

My research in Buenos Aires and Mexico DF focused on studying how Conservative parties in these two countries attempt to obtain the electoral support of the popular sectors. In particular, I collected party documents and electoral data, and I interviewed party leaders, politicians, academics, and journalists to understand how political parties expand their base of support. My interviews focused mainly on the strategies used by parties to attract poor voters. My stay in Argentina and Mexico allowed me to collect evidence in order to confirm and disregard several hypotheses I built during my last academic year, when I focused on the theoretical part of this project. In the near future I attempt to submit an article on Conservative parties in Latin America to a refereed journal in Comparative Politics. For this, I will not only incorporate the evidence I obtained during this summer, but I will also add a third case to my study: Chile. In addition, the evidence collected will improve my dissertation that will focus on the strategies used by both leftwing and rightwing political parties to expand their electoral coalitions.