INSTITUTIONALIZATION AND PERONISM - THE CONCEPT, THE CASE AND THE CASE FOR UNPACKING THE CONCEPT

The concept of institutionalization is widely employed but often poorl y defined in the literature on political parties. This paper argues th at 'institutionalization' as it is frequently used encompasses a diver se set of meanings that are better thought of as conceptually distinct . The paper examines two phenomena that have been widely associated wi th institutionalization: 'value infusion' and 'behavioral routinizatio n'. It uses the case of Peronism in Argentina, which is infused with v alue but poorly routinized, to demonstrate that these phenomena can va ry independently. The paper argues that the failure to make these conc eptual distinctions may pose serious problems for causal analysis. As an example, it shows how different conceptions of institutionalization lead to opposing arguments about the relation between institutionaliz ation and the capacity of parties to adapt to changing electoral and p olicy environments. The paper then examines the distinction between fo rmal and informal routinization with respect to political parties, arg uing that many studies of political parties fail to incorporate inform ally routinized behavior patterns into their conceptions of institutio nalization.