Abstract

EUFRACIO JARAMILLO, Jorge Federico. El estudio de las facciones de partido: un posible complemento para los estudios sobre partidos políticos y procesos electorales. Intersticios sociales [online]. 2012, n.4. ISSN 2007-4964.

This article is meant to revitalize a debate that has lagged behind in the social sciences and that can be helpful to the better understanding of the electoral process in the democratic transition regimes. Specifically, the study of factions allows to set a point of observation on how political parties organize. However, the concept of faction has suffered a succession of negative connotations that virtually have isolated it from scientific analysis and that, therefore, have not allowed it to exploit its explanatory potential. This is so because in the current debates on democracy the political parties appears as institutions that play a fundamental role, while the factions are rather considered as anachronistic, harmful and self-relating groupings that have nothing to do with the ideals of democracy. Therefore, it seems necessary to formulate a discussion and revaluation of the concept and its potential uses, in the light of the theoretical contributions that have been developed and applied in various parts of the world, to generate more meaningful debates that lead us to the better analysis of a complex reality that goes beyond a simple opposition between 'good' and 'wrong'.

Keywords : factions; political parties; regime.