Party system collapse is a rare phenomenon worldwide. In the Andean Region, however, it has been the rule, rather than the exception: all of the Andean countries have experienced severe crises of democratic representation. Peru faced the first party system collapse in the 1990s, which proved to be one of the most severe in the region. Although the specialized literature has concentrated on explaining why citizens abandoned traditional political parties, there is an enormous gap in the literature regarding how post collapse party systems actually function. The term "democracy without parties" is superficial; it emphasizes what is lacking in the political system, without describing what has taken its place to organize politics in the Andean region. I argue that partisanship can emerge and survive in a post party system collapse scenario such as Peru. Despite obstacles to partisan politics, politicians can establish successful connections with citizens through a combination of programmatic and personalistics linkages. Although political parties in Peru are based on extremely weak organizations with minimal levels of social rootedness, their national leaders have developed permanent connections that exceed mere personalistic appeals. Programmatic considerations and issue-positioning. Coupled with charismatic and pro/anti-establishment appeals are efficient predictors of political behavior at the individual level.I identify the existence of transitional partisanships based on the relative strengthening of programmatic-political linkages. Transitional partisanships are not full-fledged versions of party identification. They are loosely based on programmatic considerations, but can tolerate ideological shifts. They include personalistic appeals, but can transcend specific leaderships. I identify three types of transitional partisanships: surviving, nascent, and negative partisanships. Survival partisanships represent long-enduring party identifications that have survived the party system collapse through strong leadership (the case of APRA). Nascent partisanships consist of emerging party identifications that are ideologically disperse, but grounded by strong personalistic legacies (the case of Fujimorismo). Finally, "negative partisanships" represent a coherent, hardcore opposition to particular party identifications that also coalesce around programmatic and personalistic appeals (the cases of Anti-Aprismo and Anti-Fujimorismo). The three types of transitional partisanships successfully explain electoral alignments in Peru at the individual level, as well as the decline of electoral volatility in Peruvian politics.Based on original national survey data applied after the 2011 Peruvian presidential elections and qualitative information gathered through interviews and focus groups with national leaders of APRA and Fujimorismo, I explore how contemporary Peruvian politics functions and the challenges to and opportunities for its political institutionalization. A comparative perspective is utilized to explore this argument's applicability in other Andean countries.