The red springs of power: Political parties' nationalization and the Paraguayan party's system (1998-2013) [Los resortes colorados del poder: Nacionalización de los partidos y el sistema de partidos paraguayo (1998-2013)]

This article intends to demonstrate the territorial and power distribution at departmental (provincial) level in Paraguay. It seeks to identify the key aspects to understand the springs of power allowing the Asociacion Nacional Republicana - National Republican Association - (ANR as per its Spanish acronym) keeping political control of its short-lived move to the opposition (2008-2013). The article intents: a) to determine how is that the electoral geography has changed at departmental (provincial) level; b) to define what departments (provinces) have identified alternation processes and what have not; and c) to identified electoral strongholds, correlating those to the economic and demographic features in each one of the regions. Changes in the parties' system at national level conceal the continuity shown by it at departmental level in which the two big traditional parties widely control local power, as these are just the only ones possessing a very effective nationalized structure.

Electoral competiveness; Electoral strongholds; Parties nationalization; Parties system; Subnational elections

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