Objective/context:

The article gives an account of the bifurcation of the Peruvian right in two different and distant camps. Despite the common origin of the adjustment reforms implemented by Alberto Fujimori's government in the early 1990s, the populist and technocratic branches of the Peruvian right each took their own path. While the re-composition of Fujimorismo in the new century opted for the populist path, the technical elites found in Peruanos por el Kambio a political vehicle to influence the electoral arena. The prominence of values-driven debate in the last decade ended up sharpening these divisions into a political cleavage. The populist side enshrined conservative moral values, while the technocratic camp tended to embrace a liberal values agenda. This conflict around social issues, superimposed on the rupture between populists and technocrats, solidified an irreconcilable division by unearthing the existence of a classist substrate.

Methodology:

The research was guided by a systematization of secondary sources, specifically the use of public opinion databases that trace the evolution of programmatic positions along the economic axis and the sociocultural axis.

Conclusions:

The division within the Peruvian right is based upon two different paths to building social legitimacy (populist versus technocratic) and on the adoption of two conflicting sets of values (conservative and liberal, respectively). Thus, a political cleavage that transcends party and electoral junctures has intensified.

Originality:

Usually studies on Peruvian right have focused on the ideological positions of the elites or their respective constituencies. This article focuses instead on combining supply and demand to identify deeper sociological divisions within Peru's right wing.