Programmatic party systems develop during extended periods of adaptive political learning, catalyzed by historical episodes in which momentous societal conflicts crystallize around alternative modes of political-economic domination. When large constituencies and their political representatives struggle for the adoption of far-reaching political-economic arrangements, and when they have the opportunity to play electoral politics repeatedly, then advocates of change and their antagonists may coordinate around rival programmatic party visions. These alternatives become progressively more structured through a process of building lasting party organizations and by locking in social and economic policies and institutions that bind electoral constituencies to specific partisan alternatives. The development of such divides may extend over decades, even though it may erupt in profound economic and political crises and violent domestic or external conflicts.

In this chapter, we probe into the historical origins of late twentieth-century Latin American programmatic party structuration (PPS), which we claim is rooted in early episodes of democratic competition and fierce struggles over the governance of each country's political economy. From this perspective the formation of programmatic party competition is a long-term process. Novel socioeconomic and political challenges may trigger a process of learning how to mobilize politically that ultimately results in a sustained configuration of programmatic partisan alternatives. Once actors have constructed partisan divides and dimensions of competition, such alignments may erode under the impact of changing political-economic circumstances that lead to the emergence of new groups and alignments of economic, political, and cultural interests not reflected in the existing political party system.