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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2014
THE ANALYSIS OF THE PRESENT CHILEAN POLITICAL PROCESS MAY serve to underline some features of the Marxist theory of the state and of the relationship between social classes and institutional structures. Few countries offer such a clear example as Chile of the impact of the elements forming the ideological superstructure on the social and economic mechanisms which operate at the level of the infrastructure. Its long, bourgeois democratic tradition has led to the accumulation of many juridical and institutional elements, to which formal respect has been given, and which have built up a system of domination thanks to the acquiescence of other social sectors. The achievement of a high degree of consensus had been the other side of the face of a weak bourgeoisie, and in the blind logic of weak dominant classes, they have transformed their superstructure into their Achilles's heel. For the Chilean political process has shown how political power can transform itself into an instrument which will destroy the unity of the institutionalized power structure of the bourgeois state, when it is controlled by an alliance of social forces which escape the influence of the dominant class and its allies.
1 El Mercurio, 17 January 1971. El Mercurio was founded in 1827; it represents the ‘democratic’ tradition in Chile. It is owned by the Edwards family, one of the great industrial, commercial and financial clans in the country, and is the ‘classic’ mouthpiece of the bourgeoisie.
2 Decree Law No. 481, December 1970.
3 Mapuches, the Indian inhabitants of southern Chile.
4 El Mercurio, 10 January 1971.
5 Ibid., 6 November 1971. See also La Prensa, 18 November 1971. La Prensa was founded on 28 October 1970, after the victory of Unidad Popular, by members of the Christian Democrat Party, and ex‐members of the Frei government.
6 El Mercurio, 28 November 1971.
7 Ibid., 22 July 1971.
8 Ibid., 16 August 1971.
9 Ibid., 29 August 1971; cf. La Prensa of the same date.
10 El Mercurio, 22 January 1972
11 Ibid., 31 January 1972.
12 Ibid., 20 November 1971.
13 1 November 1971.
14 26 November 1971.
15 La Prensa, 23 January 1971.
16 El Mercurio, 10 May 1971.
17 Ibid., 9 May 1971.
18 As was stated by the President of the Supreme Court on I March 1971.
19 El Mercurio, 18 November 1971.
20 Ibid.
21 La Prensa, 25 September 1971.
22 Ibid., 29 September 1971.
23 Ibid., 30 October 1971
24 Ibid., 13 November 1971
25 Early in December 1971, a gathering of several thousand people was held to form the ‘Front of the Private Area’, under the auspices of the Confederation of Production and Commerce. All the principal firms were represented as well as the National Party and the Christian Democrats. A national committee was elected, under the presidency of a medium businessman, and it inaugurated a countrywide campaign to protect ‘private enterprise’ by means of the formation of a front of the masses, and by constitutional reforms imposed by the National Party and Christian Democrat majority in Congress.
