PARTY POLITICS VOL 7. No.5 pp.581-604 Copyright © 2001 SAGE Publications London • Thousand Oaks · New Delhi OLD PARTIES AND NEW DEMOCRACIES Do They Bring out the Best in One Another?

The democratization literature suggests a country's chances of success-fully democratizing are improved by having an institutionalized party system that evolved before the recent authoritarian period. However, the conditions under which old parties established in previous democratic, quasi-democratic or authoritarian periods will benefit a new democracy have not been explored. If a party engaged in undemocratic behavior in the past, such as military alliances, election rigging or internal procedures that denied rank-and-file members chances for meaningful participation, then it may bring these undemocratic behavior patterns into the new democratic regime. The traditional parties in Argentina