Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps and tables
- Preface to the third edition
- Preface to the second edition
- Preface to the first edition
- Map 1 Latin America
- Map 2 Per capita gross domestic products 1987, measured in 1986 U.S. dollars. (Source: Inter-American Development Bank, Economic and Social Progress in Latin America, 1988, p. 540.)
- Part I Understanding Latin American politics
- Part II The political games played in Latin America
- 6 Mexico: Whose game is it?
- 7 Chile: democracy destroyed
- 8 Venezuela: democracy preserved
- 9 Brazil: populists, authoritarians, and democrats
- 10 Argentina: populists, authoritarians, and democrats
- 11 Cuba: a communist revolution
- 12 Nicaragua: revolution the Sandinista way
- Appendix: Tables
- Index
7 - Chile: democracy destroyed
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps and tables
- Preface to the third edition
- Preface to the second edition
- Preface to the first edition
- Map 1 Latin America
- Map 2 Per capita gross domestic products 1987, measured in 1986 U.S. dollars. (Source: Inter-American Development Bank, Economic and Social Progress in Latin America, 1988, p. 540.)
- Part I Understanding Latin American politics
- Part II The political games played in Latin America
- 6 Mexico: Whose game is it?
- 7 Chile: democracy destroyed
- 8 Venezuela: democracy preserved
- 9 Brazil: populists, authoritarians, and democrats
- 10 Argentina: populists, authoritarians, and democrats
- 11 Cuba: a communist revolution
- 12 Nicaragua: revolution the Sandinista way
- Appendix: Tables
- Index
Summary
Chileans once thrived on democratic government. Their political parties were numerous, ranging from Communists and Socialists on the Left to Conservatives on the Right, and every six years between 1932 and 1970 they elected a new president who peacefully replaced an incumbent whose party he had defeated. But this was ended abruptly in September 1973 by the nation's armed forces. It would be fifteen years before the Chilean people were given an opportunity to try democracy again. In a 1988 plebiscite in which General Augusto Pinochet sought confirmation of his authoritarian government, 54 percent of the Chilean electorate rejected it, forcing him to deliver on his promise to restore democratic government by 1990 if he were defeated. Thus, the nation that had once been one of Latin America's most admired democracies, before it was closed by the armed forces in 1973, chose to dismiss its military dictator and start over. Why this became necessary deserves some explanation.
Democratic rules
Latin Americans have experimented with various forms of liberal democracy ever since they gained their independence over 170 years ago, but from the beginning it was frequently undermined by the most powerful members of their societies. Constitutions modeled on the United States document have been written and rewritten, stressing popular sovereignty, majority rule, minority rights, and free elections, but until the middle of this century most of them only served as pretenses to legitimize the political monopolies of entrenched elites.
It pays to recall that liberal democratic rules are not arbitrary, but are derived from fundamental beliefs about the nature of society and its governance.
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- Chapter
- Information
- The Politics of Latin American Development , pp. 167 - 192Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1990