Continuity and changes in an old party democracy in Uruguay (1910-2010)

ABSTRACT IN ENGLISH: This article "revisits" the old Uruguayan party democracy - the eldest and one of the few in Latin America - reviewing well-known contributions as well as my own proposals, to point out persistence and changes during the last century. Trying to avoid "exceptionalism", the text interweaves comparative references, which provide a framework for the originality of the Uruguayan case and make it possible to further highlight its potential for Comparative Politics. The first part reviews the genetic model and the typical features of the Uruguayan regime, explaining its comparative advantages: the historical background and the polyarchy origins, pluralist presidentialism, and a sui generis consociational democracy, made up by political parties and not of social cleavages. The second part deals with the great transformation following the democratic transition of the 1980s, arising from the changes in the party system, which do not prompt its breakdown but instead reshape its plural and competitive structure. This section reviews the liberal transition of the 1990s and the 1996 constitutional reform, the decline of the traditional two-party system and the Frente Amplio's development into a predominant party, including its debut with a social democratic government, which echoes the "late" social democracies in Southern Europe. Through all this, the renewed Uruguayan party democracy - which at the time could not avoid the dictatorship between 1973-1984 - continues to make a difference and at the end of a long and gradual process, forges a new political norm. // ABSTRACT IN SPANISH: Este artículo revisita la vieja democracia de partidos uruguaya - la más antigua y una de las pocas de América Latina - retomando críticamente aportes señeros y propuestas propias, para señalar cambios y continuidades en el correr de cien años. Tratando de no caer en el excepcionalismo, el texto hilvana referencias comparativas, que encuadran la originalidad del caso uruguayo y permiten resaltar el potencial que su análisis tiene para la Política Comparada. La primera parte repasa el modelo genético y los rasgos típicos del régimen, que explican sus ventajas comparativas: los factores originarios, la matriz poliárquica, el presidencialismo pluralista, una democracia consociational sui generis, hecha de partidos políticos y no de clivajes sociales. La segunda parte aborda la gran transformación que sigue a la transición democrática de los 1980, mostrando un sistema de p