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The Rise of the Contentious Right: Digitally Intermediated Linkage Strategies in Argentina and Brazil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2021

Tomás Gold
Affiliation:
Tomás Gold is a doctoral candidate in sociology and a Kellogg Institute fellow at the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, USA. tgold@nd.edu.
Alejandro M. Peña
Affiliation:
Alejandro M. Peña is a senior lecturer in international politics at the University of York, Heslington, York, United Kingdom. alejandro.pena@york.ac.uk.

Abstract

This article analyzes novel patterns of interaction between right-wing parties and protest movements during major contentious cycles in Argentina (2012–13) and Brazil (2013–16), which preceded the advent of the Cambiemos coalition in the former and the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff in the latter. Drawing on a dual process-tracing strategy and a wide range of data sources, this study shows that these interactions are central to understanding why and how right-wing parties leverage novel repertoires and resources from digital activists during contemporary protest cycles, a dynamic conceptualized as a new party linkage strategy through digital intermediation. The study traces its three-phase development in both countries, revealing how differences in institutional contexts and the strength of activist groups contributed to divergent trajectories of partisan opposition toward the end of the cycles, regarding both the subsequent reconfiguration of the right and the entry of digital activists into institutional arenas.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© The Authors 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the University of Miami

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References

AUTHOR INTERVIEWS

Interview subjects have been kept anonymous.

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