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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Chile
Index
A masculine textile figure (kolümamell) from the
reverse side of a seventeenth-century Mapuche woman's belt
called ñimintrarüwe
WITH THE REESTABLISHMENT of democratic government in March
1990,
Chile was once again thrust into the international
limelight. In
the early 1970s, the long, narrow country on the west
coast of
South America had drawn widespread attention by electing a
Marxist
president, Salvador Allende Gossens (1970-73), who was
intent on
forging a new path to socialism. Following Allende's
overthrow on
September 11, 1973, Chile under military rule became
notorious for
some of the worst excesses of modern-day authoritarianism.
Headed by General of the Army Augusto Pinochet Ugarte
(1973-
90), the dictatorship was widely reviled for ending
Chile's
tradition of democratic politics and committing numerous
violations
of human rights. Although isolated politically, Chile's
military
government earned international acclaim for far-reaching
economic
and social reforms that transformed the country's
state-oriented
economy into one of the most open economic systems in the
developing world. The economic reforms of the late 1970s
and 1980s
set the foundation for extraordinary investment and growth
in the
early 1990s. Economic progress, combined with the return
of
democratic politics largely devoid of the confrontation
and
polarization of the past, positioned Chile to enter the
twentyfirst century with increased prosperity in a climate of
peace and
freedom.
Chile's favorable situation developed because the
military
government's success at implementing an economic
revolution was not
duplicated in the political arena. From the outset,
Pinochet and
his colleagues had sought to displace the parties,
politicians, and
institutions of the past so that they might create a
nation of
pliant and patriotic citizens, devoted to their private
pursuits
under the tutelage of a strong and benevolent state with
merely a
façade of representative government.
However, the military commanders badly underestimated
the
strength of the nation's traditional political parties and
failed
to understand the degree to which democratic practices and
institutions had become a fundamental part of Chile's
national
character. Indeed, Pinochet was forced to abandon his plan
for
virtual life-long rule after a humiliating personal defeat
in a
1988
plebiscite (see
Glossary) at the hands of the very
civilian
leaders whom he had reviled and persecuted. Their
resilience made
possible the transition to democracy in March 1990 and the
success
of Chile's first civilian government after seventeen years
of
authoritarian rule.
Chile's transition back to democracy encountered
serious
challenges. Although opposition groups had vehemently
rejected the
Pinochet government's constitution of 1980 as illegitimate
and
undemocratic, they were forced to accept the political
rules and
playing field as defined by the military government in
order to
challenge its very authority. To a greater degree than
most other
transitions to democracy in Latin America, Chile's was
accomplished
within the framework of an institutional order conceived
by an
authoritarian regime, one that continued to define the
political
game long after the return to representative government.
Pinochet
was unable to destroy his adversaries or project his own
presidential leadership into the future, but he succeeded
in
imposing an institutional legacy that Chile's civilian
elites would
have to modify substantially if Chile were to become fully
democratic.
Data as of March 1994
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