How political parties and politicians represent citizens’ interests is pivotal for quality of democracy and a central topic in political science. Scholarship on Latin America usually discusses political representation from two different but related strands. On the one hand, influenced by Responsible Party Government approaches, researchers have studied the issue and ideological congruence between party elites and voters. On the other hand, scholars also have explored the strategies parties adopt to build linkages in order to bond with voters. This chapter focuses on the latter topic: How have party-voters’ linkages in Latin America unfolded after the Third Wave of democratization? Rich body of literature has shown that party’s strategies vary significantly across the region and within countries. While countries such as Argentina, Mexico, and El Salvador, are characterized by the presence of party machines making clientelism –the exchange of goods/services by political favours– almost ubiquitous; in countries such as Chile, Costa Rica, and Uruguay, parties are more prone to offer a programmatic portfolio –clear ideological ideas on crucial political issues– as a predominant linkage strategy. Interestingly enough, recent studies have showed that parties also diversify linkages strategies to reach a broader portion of the electorate using programmatic and non-programmatic appeal simultaneously. Following classic Trade-off models, Structural variables –class– and electoral conditions –how competitive elections are– have been pointed out as determinants of this diversification strategies. Departing from conventional wisdom, in this chapter I introduce the micro foundations for a local theory of hybrid linkages. I claim that the combination of top-down party pressures and bottom up demands shape the incentives of local politicians to appeal some constituencies with programmatic strategies while engaging in quid-pro-quo with others.

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