Kenneth M. Roberts is Professor of Government at Cornell University. He is the author of Deepening Democracy?: The Modern Left and Social Movements in Chile and Peru (1998). Roberts is the co-editor of The Diffusion of Social Movements: Actors, Mechanisms, and Political Effects (Cambridge, 2010) and The Resurgence of the Latin American Left (2011). His articles have appeared in the American Political Science Review, World Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Comparative Politics, Latin American Politics and Society, and Studies in Comparative International Development.

This book explores the impact of economic crises and free-market reforms on party systems and political representation in contemporary Latin America. It explains why some patterns of market reform align and stabilize party systems, whereas other patterns of reform leave party systems vulnerable to widespread social protest and electoral instability. In contrast to other works on the topic, this book accounts for both the institutionalization and the breakdown of party systems, and it explains why Latin America turned to the Left politically in the aftermath of the market-reform process. Ultimately, it explains why this "left turn" was more radical in some countries than others and why it had such varied effects on national party systems.