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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Chile
Index
In the early 1990s, Chile stood in a favorable position
as it
rejoined the community of democratic nations. The high
rate of
growth that began in 1985 continued under the Aylwin
government,
reaching 10.4 percent in 1992, while inflation moderated.
With the
exception of Colombia, Chile was the only major economy on
the
South American continent to finish the 1980s with a per
capita GDP
larger than that of 1980. High levels of foreign and
domestic
investment and continued improvement in Chile's export
performance
suggested that the country's economy would continue to
improve.
Chile also made significant progress in the political
sphere.
Moderation of the country's political discourse permitted
a return
to the politics of conciliation. Paradoxically, the
special
guarantees given to the military and the right in the
outgoing
regime's institutional order, while fundamentally
undemocratic,
helped those sectors accept a democratic transition in the
knowledge that they retained significant measures of
power. The
continuation of Pinochet in office also gave comfort to
the
supporters of the former regime, fearful of a return to
popular
sovereignty. Ironically, it also contributed to the strong
unity
and discipline of the former opposition parties that make
up the
government, reinforcing patterns of accommodation and
compromise
and contributing to the notable success of the Aylwin
administration.
Although the "authoritarian enclaves" of the past may
have
contributed to the smooth transition process, they could
endanger
Chile's democratic stability over the long run. The most
troubling
problem appeared to be the exaggerated presidentialism
embodied in
the 1980 constitution. The Aylwin administration performed
well
within the rules inherited from the military government
because of
the unusual collaboration among leaders who had developed
a strong
sense of camaraderie in opposing the dictatorship.
Determined not
to risk an authoritarian reversal, these leaders insisted
on an
extraordinary degree of unity in implementing cautious,
moderate
policies. Legislative leaders and middle- and lower-level
activists
also understood the need for discipline and consensus,
deferring to
their leaders within the executive branch on most matters.
This pattern of "forced consensus," however, could not
continue
indefinitely. As the new Frei administration was
inaugurated on
March 11, 1994, it was clear that members of Congress and
lowerlevel leaders resented their lack of significant input
into the
policy process. The lack of authority in the legislature
created
the risk that Congress would become an essentially
negative
institution seeking to undermine the executive, with no
significant
role in developing arenas of accommodation and consensus
that had
served Chile so well in previous eras.
Particularly vexing was incompatibility between a
presidentialist form of government and a highly
institutionalized
multiparty system, one in which the president appeared
unlikely to
obtain majority support in the presidential race and
unlikely to
enjoy majority support in the legislature. Under such
circumstances, Chile would need institutional rules and
procedures
to provide incentives to build political coalitions across
party
lines. Although there was consensus in 1993 among the
elite on
fundamental questions, there was no guarantee that
consensus would
remain once Chile moved away from the "heroic politics" of
the
immediate postauthoritarian period to the more "banal
politics" of
democratic normality. Among the many issues that would
challenge
Chile's parties and, indeed, could lead to a
reconfiguration of
party alliances, were, of course, poverty, as well as
other matters
that had not as yet reached the national policy agenda,
such as
divorce, abortion, the environment, and grass-roots
political
participation.
Chile's electoral system also posed a challenge. Rather
than
generate a two-party system, the electoral system has
encouraged
the maintenance of broad coalitions, including parties
that would
probably not obtain seats in a fully competitive electoral
framework. The electoral system could encourage political
instability if two runners-up were evenly matched. In a
political
system where the forces on the left, right, and center are
roughly
equal in size, the electoral system could lead to the
disenfranchisement of one of those sectors if the politics
of broad
coalitions were to break down.
Finally, it remained clear that Chilean democracy would
not be
fully consolidated until civil-military relations were
normalized.
Although it is important that a democracy insulate the
armed forces
from partisan political meddling in the same way that the
judicial
system is kept "apolitical," the broad latitude given the
armed
forces in the 1980 constitution threatened democratic
stability by
shielding the military institution from civilian
oversight. The
task of the Frei government would be to ease this threat
by
completing the constitutional reforms left pending after
the 1989
compromises made with the outgoing military regime.
* * *
The classic study in English of politics and government
in
Chile remains Federico G. Gil's The Political System of
Chile. Paul W. Drake's Socialism and Populism in
Chile,
1932-52 and James F. Petras's Politics and Social
Forces in
Chilean Development provide valuable discussions of
the
politics of Chile in the pre-Allende period. There are
numerous
studies of the Allende years, many of which also provide
background
material on the political conditions in Chile leading up
to the
election of the Popular Unity government. These include
Paul E.
Sigmund's The Overthrow of Allende and the Politics of
Chile,
1964-76, Barbara Stallings's Class Conflict and
Economic
Development in Chile, 1958-1973, Mark Falcoff's
Modern
Chile, 1970-1989, Edy Kaufman's Crisis in Allende's
Chile, and Arturo Valenzuela's The Breakdown of
Democratic
Regimes: Chile. Arturo Valenzuela and J. Samuel
Valenzuela's
Chile: Politics and Society provides an anthology
of essays.
The Allende years, from the point of view of the United
States
ambassador who served at the time of the coup, are
described in
Nathaniel Davis's The Last Two Years of Salvador
Allende.
Studies of the Pinochet years are fewer. The first
comprehensive study of the period of military rule is
Pamela
Constable and Arturo Valenzuela's A Nation of
Enemies. A
volume of essays providing an overview of the first decade
of
military rule is J. Samuel Valenzuela and Arturo
Valenzuela's
Military Rule in Chile. For coverage of
civil-military
relations during the 1973-88 period, see also Manuel
Antonio
Garretón Merino's The Chilean Political Process.
Paul W.
Drake and Iván Jaksic's The Struggle for Democracy in
Chile,
1982-1990 is an anthology covering the transition
phase.
The best study of the Catholic Church in Chile is Brian
H.
Smith's The Church and Politics in Chile. Chile's
party
system is discussed in Timothy R. Scully's Rethinking
the
Center. Michael Fleet's The Rise and Fall of
Christian
Democracy, and Caesar N. Caviédes's Elections in
Chile.
Frederick M. Nunn's The Military in Chilean History
provides
a historical discussion of the military. A critical
discussion of
the military institution under Pinochet can be found in
Genaro
Arriagada's Pinochet: The Politics of Power.
United States-Chile relations in the contemporary
period are
treated in Michael J. Francis's The Limits of
Hegemony and
Paul E. Sigmund's The United States and Democracy in
Chile.
(For further information and complete citations,
see
Bibliography.)
Data as of March 1994
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