Latin American opinion surveys consistently point to Peruvian citizens' deep distrust of their elected rulers and democratic institutions. The 2011 presidential and legislative elections in Peru, along with the regional and municipal polls of the previous year, showed once again the degree of political fragmentation in contemporary Peru and the weakness of the party system. The chapters in this book are based on papers given at a conference, held in March 2009 in Saint Antony's College Oxford, by leading scholars of Peruvian politics with Julio Cotler, from the Instituto de Estudios Peruanos (IEP), the keynote speaker. The book examines the history of political exclusion in Peru, the weakness of representative institutions and the persistence of localised violent protest. It also evaluates the contribution of institutional reforms in bridging the gap between state and society, including the Law on Political Parties, administrative decentralisation, and the experience of the Defensoría or ombudsman's office.