Chapter seven integrates the perspectives of followers and leaders to investigate the trajectories of charismatic movements starting from the moment when their founders disappear. To begin, I explain how, while generating tremendous political and economic volatility, the fitful pattern in which these movements develop reinforces, rather than dilutes, the personalistic nature of the movement. Subsequently, I trace the history of the Peronist movement from Perón’s exile in 1955 until 2015, when Peronist candidate Daniel Scioli lost the presidential election to Mauricio Macri, a non-Peronist. The analysis illustrates the endogenous nature of charismatic movement revival and explains how, paradoxically, such movements generate periods of political strength and coherence as well as periods of recession and political fragmentation, the latter of which, in turn, help prepare the ground for the movement’s re-emergence. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the fifth revival of Peronism in 2019 under Cristina Kirchner and her handpicked presidential candidate and running mate, Alberto Fernández.

Chapter eight summarizes key empirical findings of the study, draws theoretical conclusions about the potential for charismatic movements to bypass routinization and live on in personalistic form, and reflects on the challenges these movements pose for democracy. It also extends the analysis to cases beyond Argentina and Venezuela where charismatic movements persisted or reemerged after the disappearance of their founders, including Fujimorismo in Peru, Forza Italia in Italy, the Pheu Thai Party in Thailand, and Maoism in China. The chapter also explores the broader implications that my theory of personalistic revival holds for the potential staying power and consequences of charismatic populist leaders, who are on the rise in countries across the world.

This chapter introduces the background and key research question of the project for this book, which is an output of a multi-country study on a highly important subject in emerging markets: what types of capabilities do emerging market firms need, and how do they acquire and upgrade these capabilities in order to achieve competitiveness in the global market? The chapter highlights two unique aspects of emerging markets: weak institutions and lack of endowment. The main theme of the book thus becomes how emerging market companies develop competitive capabilities to international levels facing these two critical constraints. The chapter also discusses the organization of the book, which comprises twelve different country studies, and presents the methodology used to select and evaluate the firms studied.