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Coalitions, Voters and Party System Transformation in Post‐authoritarian Chile

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Peter M. Siavelis
Peter M. Siavelis*
Affiliation:
Wake Forest University, Winston‐Salem, North Carolina
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Extract

With The Inauguration Of The Socialist President, Ricardo Lagos, in March 2000 it would appear that the Chilean party system had come full circle since the 1973 coup that unseated the last Socialist President, Salvador Allende. Despite the Chilean military's efforts to eradicate the left during its almost seventeen years in power, a Socialist assumed the presidency only a dozen years after the electoral defeat of the military regime in 1988. In one sense, this success is a testament to the perseverance of the party of Allende, and the party system in general. Nonetheless, the Socialist Party, and indeed the Chilean party system, are quite distinct from the ethos of the Allende years of the early 1970s. At the same time, it is undeniable that there are striking continuities in terms of the number of political parties and patterns of partisan competition. Thus, how should one interpret the extent of transformation and continuity in the Chilean party system?

Type
Original Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , January 2002 , pp. 76 - 105
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 2002

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References

1 The latter alliance has changed names several times and has also been known as Democracia y Progreso, and Unión por el Progreso.

2 For arguments suggesting qualitative change in the party system, and the potential emergence of a more permanent pattern of bipolarity see Guzmán, Eugenio, ‘Reflexiones sobre el sistema binominal’, Estudios públicos, 51 (Winter 1991), pp. 303–25Google Scholar; Hernán Gutiérrez, ‘Chile 1989: ¿Elecciones fundacionales?’, Documento de trabajo, serie estudios públicos, 3, FLACSO, Santiago (October 1990); and Rabkin, Rhoda, ‘Redemocratization, Electoral Engineering and Party Strategies in Chile: 1989–1995’, Comparative Political Studies, 29:3 (1996), pp. 335–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 The system is characterized as such in Manuel Antonio Garretón, The Chilean Political Process, Boston, Unwin Hyman, 1989, p. xvi. For the best overview of the historic importance of parties see Federico Gil, The Political System of Chile, Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1966, pp. 244–97.

4 Valenzuela, Arturo, The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes: Chile, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978 Google Scholar; Landsberger, H. and McDaniel, T., ‘Hypermobilization in Chile, 1970–73’, World Politics, 28:4 (07 1976), pp. 502–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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24 John Carey, ‘Parties, Coalitions, and the Chilean Congress in the 1990s’, paper presented at the XXI International Meeting of the Latin American Studies Association, Chicago, IL, 24–26 September 1998, p. 27.

25 A. Valenzuela, The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes, op. cit., pp. 7–8.

26 Chile employed the proportional d’Hondt method for elections to the Chamber of Deputies, with districts ranging in magnitude from 2 to 18. Senators were elected in districts with magnitudes of 5. For a description, see F. Gil, The Political System of Chile, op. cit., pp. 206–30.

27 For simulations demonstrating the potentially exclusionary characteristics of the electoral system see Siavelis and Valenzuela, 1996, op. cit.

28 A. Valenzuela, The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes, op. cit., pp. 33–7.

29 Ibid.

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33 Though the term for Senators is eight years, half of the Senate is renewed every four years. This factor has the potential to deprive presidents of elective majorities in the Senate, even though their parties may sweep Senate elections.

34 Jones, Mark, Electoral Laws and the Survival of Presidential Democracy, Notre Dame, University of Notre Dame Press, 1995 Google Scholar; Shugart, Matthew, ‘The Electoral Cycle and Institutional Sources of Divided Government’, American Political Science Review, 89:2 (1995), pp. 327–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

35 P. Siavelis and A. Valenzuela, ‘Electoral Engineering’, op. cit., p. 95.

36 Arturo Valenzuela, ‘Party Politics and the Failure of Presidentialism in Chile: A Proposal for a Parliamentary form of Government’, paper presented at the conference, ‘Presidential or Parliamentary Democracy: Does it Make a Difference?’, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, 14–16 May 1989, p. 169.

37 P. Siavelis and A. Valenzuela, ‘Electoral Engineering’, op. cit., p. 112; J. S. Valenzuela and T. Scully, ‘Electoral Choices’, op. cit.

38 Timothy Scully, ‘Rethinking the Center’, op. cit., p. 200.

39 Ibid.

40 El Mercurio, 14 December 1997, p. D14.

41 Ibid.

42 Centro de Estudios Públicos, ‘Estudio nacional de opinión pública No. 7’, Documento de trabajo No. 283, Tercera serie, Santiago, Centro de Estudios Públicos (August 1998), p. 45.

43 Participa, ‘Estudio sobre la democracia y participación política’, Informe segunda medición, Santiago, Participa, 1993.

44 P. Siavelis, ‘Continuity and Change’, op. cit.

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46 G. Munck and J. Bosworth, ‘Patterns of Representation’, op. cit.

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48 Siavelis, Peter, The President and Congress in Post-Authoritarian Chile, University Park Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000 Google Scholar.