The PJ (Peronist Party) according to Levitsky is a highly mis-conceptualized organization. Accepted amongst many is that the PJ lacks formal organization. Scholars have deemed its party’s organization as “virtually non-existent” (pg. 29). This belief is due to inactivity amongst party leader and the party bureaucracy. But to say the party is weak because of this, would be a mistaken belief. On the contrary, what would appear to be the greatest weakness is actually its greatest strength. One thing that is not misconstrued is that the PJ has a very large base. The PJ contains, “membership is nearly 4 million” (pg. 30). It is also “one of the largest democratic parties in the world” (pg. 30). So how can we say this party is so weak, when in its physical size, it is very large. Even if you were to disregard the fact that the PJ is strong in regards to its electoral strength, you still wouldn’t understand Levitsky’s argument. The PJ’s organizational structure has been under researched. Scholars tend to focus on the wrong things. The weak or lack of formal structure tends to “obscure the informal structure that surrounds it” (pg 30). The Peronist may not be highly visible in regards to a party bureaucracy, but is established in unions, homes, and clubs. These things are harder to see in records or statues but provide the party its network to the working or lower class. To understand why the party works this way, you must examine some of its history. The PJ is a “survivor”. It survived the death of Peron, its leader, which is very vital to the history of parties in Latin America. It has also survived, “decades of proscription” (pg. 30). In the late 40’s and early 50’s the PJ was very centralized and consisted of paramilitary supports that were loyal to Peron. Which would pose problems after his death. The party was able to re-emerge in the 80’s, but failed at creating bureaucratic institutions. It formed instead a decentralized organization, while maintaining some formal organization through what is called “Mass Organization”. Because of the mass territory that the party must cover, they use activist groups called “Base Units”, at the neighborhood level, which are very important to the party. The party also used municipal-level organizations also an informal function the lack of official reportings of this level masks the influence and power that it carries. Levitsky discusses that much of these lower levels aren’t linked to national party horizontally or vertically. Also, with less national standards leaves more room for diversity. Much of these groups claim that being less connected to national politics has allowed them to be more ideological driven. These informal functions of the party are attributed to much of the popularity of the party. It is theorized that being “catch all party” (pg. 34) with independent bases, is why PJ has been dominant for many years.