Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-dwq4g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-29T21:20:56.564Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Insurance for Good Losers and the Survival of Chile's Concertación

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

John M. Carey  and
Peter M. Siavelis
John M. Carey
Affiliation:
Dartmouth College
Peter M. Siavelis
Affiliation:
Wake Forest University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In the transition from military rule to democracy, the government of Augusto Pinochet bequeathed to Chile a unique electoral law by which all legislative seats are contested in two-member districts. A key implication of this rule is that in order to secure legislative majorities, coalitions have to put their strongest candidates in the most precarious electoral list positions. This generates a divergence of interests between coalitions and politicians. Chile's largest coalition, the Concertación, has resolved the dilemma by providing appointed posts to unsuccessful congressional candidates who accept personal political risk on the coalition's behalf. This study argues that this insurance system has provided the critical glue to hold the coalition together since Chile's transition to democracy in 1990. Recent changes in the electoral environment could threaten the Concertación's control over the appointed posts that have sustained this informal institution. This could jeopardize the Concertación's cohesion during the process of negotiating coalition candidate lists for the 2005 legislative elections.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 47 , Issue 2 , Summer 2005 , pp. 1 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agüero, Felipe. 2003. Chile: Unfinished Transition and Increased Political Competition. In Constructing Democratic Governance in Latin America, 2nd ed., ed. Jorge, I. Domínguez and Michael, Shifter. Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press. 1–320.Google Scholar
Carey, John M. 2002. Parties and Coalitions in Chile in the 1990s. In Legislative Politics in Latin America, ed. Scott, Morgenstern. and Benito, Nacif. New York : Cambridge University Press. 1–53.Google Scholar
Centro de Estudios Públicos 2003. Puntos salientes: encuesta nacional de opinión pública. http:www.cepchile.cl.Google Scholar
Fuentes, Claudio. 1999. Partidos y coaliciones en el Chile de los 90. Entre pactos y proyectos. In El modelo chileno: democracia y desarrollo en los noventa, ed. Paul, Drake. and Iván, Jaksic Santiago : LOM Ediciones. 1–222.Google Scholar
Jacobson, Gary C., and Samuel, Kernell. 1983. Strategy and Choice in Congressional Elections. New Haven : Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Keesing's Worldwide Online 2003. http:www.keesings.com.Google Scholar
King, Gary, Michael, Tomz, and Jason, Wittenberg. 2000. Making the Most of Statistical Analyses: Improving Interpretation and Presentation. American Journal of Political Science 44(2): 341–55. See also http:gking.harvard.educlarifydocsclarify.html.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Latin America Adviser 2002. Chilean Lawmakers Decry Leader's Statement on Ruling Coalition. Washington , DC : Inter-American Dialogue. December 11.Google Scholar
El Mercurio (Santiago). 2003a. Girardi sentencia que ya no existe la Concertación. April 13. http:diario.elmercurio.com.Google Scholar
El Mercurio (Santiago). 2003b. Cargos políticos se reducirán a 760 de los actuales 3.500. April 25. http:diario.elmercurio.com.Google Scholar
Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores 2003. Documents on presidential appointees provided to the authors by the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores and data from the ministry's web site. http:www.minrel.cl.Google Scholar
Ministerio Secretario General de la Presidencia 2003. Documents on presidential appointees provided to the authors by the División de Coordinación Interministerial of the Ministerio Secretaria General de la Presidencia and data from the ministry's web site. http:www.segpres.cl.Google Scholar
Ministry of the Interior 1989 Electoral results. http:www.elecciones.gov.clfullindexf.htm.Google Scholar
Rabkin, Rhoda. 1996. Redemocratization, Electoral Engineering, and Party Strategies in Chile, 1989–1995. Comparative Political Studies 29: 335–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siavelis, Peter M. 2002. The Hidden Logic of Candidate Selection for Chilean Parliamentary Elections. Comparative Politics 34(4): 1–38.Google Scholar
Siavelis, 2004. Informal Accommodating Institutions and Democracy in Chile. Unpublished mss.Google Scholar
Valenzuela, Arturo. 1994. Party Politics and the Crisis of Presidentialism in Chile: A Proposal for a Parliamentary Form of Government. In The Failure of Presidential Government: The Case of Latin America, vol. 2, ed. Juan, J. Linz. and Valenzuela, Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press. 1–150.Google Scholar
Walker, Ignacio. 2003. Chile: Three Stories of Informal Institutions in a Limited Democracy. Paper presented at the conference “Informal Institutions and Politics in Latin America,” University of Notre Dame, April 1–24.Google Scholar