Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T22:55:51.433Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Democratic Stability and Its Limits: An Analysis of Chile's 1993 Elections*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Gerardo L. Munck
Gerardo L. Munck*
Affiliation:
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Once again, Chile stands out within the Latin American region. In the early 1970s, Salvador Allende's brand of socialism attracted worldwide attention and captured the imagination of the international Left. In the years thereafter, Pinochet's authoritarianism set the pace for a global resurgence of the new Right. Finally, in just the last few years, Chile has become a symbol of a new sort, rapidly establishing itself as a democratic success story. Chile's democratic progress becomes especially evident when viewed alongside the large set of Latin American countries that have democratized since the late 1970s. Indeed, an analysis of the last presidential and congressional elections in Chile (11 December 1993) indicates that it has undoubtedly made greater strides toward democratic consolidation than any other country in Latin America — all the more striking when one considers that its transition from authoritarian rule was concluded only as recently as 1990.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , Summer 1994 , pp. 1 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1994

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.)

Footnotes

*

Research for this article was supported by a grant from the Campus Research Board of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The author would like to thank Paul Drake, Kurt Weyland, and three anonymous reviewers for their comments on an earlier draft of this article; however, the author assumes responsibility for any errors.

References

Angell, A. and Pollack, B. (1990) “The Chilean Elections of 1989 and the Politics of the Transition to Democracy.” Bulletin of Latin American Research 9, 1: 1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baño, R. (1990) “Chile: tendencias políticas y resultados electorates después de veinte años.” Revista Mexicana de Sociología LII, 4: 69–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baño, R. and Canales, M. (1992) “De la dictadura a la democrada,” pp. 97–185 in Meller, Patricio et al. Chile: evolutión macroeconómica, financiación externa y cambio político en la decade de los 80. Madrid, Spain: Fundación Cedeal.Google Scholar
Cavarozzi, M. (1992) “The Left in Latin America: The Decline of Socialism and the Rise of Political Democracy,” pp. 101–127 in Hartlyn, Jonathan, Shoultz, Lars and Varas, Augusto (eds.) The United States and Latin America in the 1990s. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Chile. Ministerio del Interior (1993) Informativo Elecciones 1993 (Computo Na 4). Santiago de Chile: Ministerio del Interior.Google Scholar
Constable, P. and Valenzuela, A. (1990) “Democracy Restored.” Journal of Democracy 1, 2 (Spring): 3–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Constable, P. and Valenzuela, A.. (1989-90) “Chile's Return to Democracy.” Foreign Affairs 68, 5 (Winter): 169–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garreton, M. (1993a) Author interview with Manuel Antonio Garreton, Santiago de Chile, December.Google Scholar
Garreton, M. (1993b) “La redemocratizacion politica en Chile: Transitión, inauguración y evolución” (mimeo). Paper presented at a conference of the Facultad Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO), July.Google Scholar
Garreton, M. (1989) “La oposición partidaria en el régimen militar chileno: un proceso de aprendizaje para la transición,” pp. 395–465 in Cavarozzi, Marcelo and Garreton, Manuel A. (eds.) Muerte y resurección: Los partidos polóticos en el autoritarismo y las transiciones en el Cono Sur. Santiago de Chile: Facultad Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO).Google Scholar
Linz, J. (1994) “Presidential or Parliamentary Democracy: Does it Make a Difference?” pp. 3–87 in Linz, Juan J. and Valenzuela, Arturo (eds.) The Failure of Presidential Democracy: Comparative Perspectives (Vol. 1). Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loveman, B. (1991) “¿Misión Cumplida? Civil Military Relations and the Chilean Political Transition.” Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 33, 3 (Fall): 35–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Munck, G. (1994a) “Democratic Transitions in Comparative Perspective.” Comparative Politics 26, 3 (April): 355–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Munck, G. (1994b) “Authoritarianism, Modernization, and Democracy in Chile.” Latin American Research Review 29, 2: 188–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation (Rettig Commis-sion) (1993) Report of the Chilean National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation (2 Vols). South Bend, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
O'Donnell, G. (1992) “Transitions, Continuities, and Paradoxes,” pp. 17–56 in Mainwaring, Scott, O'Donnell, Guillermo and Samuel Valenzuela, J. (eds.) Issues and Prospects of Democratic Consolidation: The New South American Democracies in Comparative Perspective. South Bend, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
O'Donnell, G. (1994) “Delegative Democracy.” Journal of Democracy 5, 1 (January): 55–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Donnell, G. and Schmitter, P. (1986) Transitions From Authoritarian Rule: Tentative Conclusions about Un-certain Democracies. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Portantiero, J. (1993) “Revisando el camino: las apuestas de la democracia en Sudamérica.” Sociedad (Buenos Aires) 2 (May): 17–34.Google Scholar
Rabkin, R. (1992-93) “The Aylwin Government and Tutelary Democracy: A Concept in Search of a Case?” Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 34, 4 (Winter): 119–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruiz-Tagle, J. (1993) “Tareas pendientes: reductión de la pobreza y distribucion de los ingresos en Chile.” Mensaje (Santiago) 425 (December): 640–43.Google Scholar
Schmitter, P. (1994) “Dangers and Dilemmas of Democracy.” Journal of Democracy 5, 2 (April): 57–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scully, T. (1992) Rethinking the Center: Party Politics in Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century Chile. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Scully, T. and Valenzuela, J.S. (1993) “From Democracy to Democracy: Continuities and Changes of Electoral Choices and the Party System in Chile” (Working Paper 199). Notre Dame, IN: The Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies, University of Notre Dame.Google Scholar
Silva, E. (1992-93) “Capitalist Regime Loyalties and Redemo Ctatization in Chile.” Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 34, 4 (Winter): 77–117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valenzuela, A. (1993) “Latin America: Presidentialism in Crisis.” Journal of Democracy 4, 4 (October): 3–l6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valenzuela, S. (1992) “Democratic Consolidation in Post-Transitional Settings: Notion, Process, and Facilitating Conditions,” pp. 57–104 in Mainwaring, Scott, O'Donnell, Guillermo and Samuel Valenzuela, J. (eds.) Issues and Prospects of Democratic Consolidation: The New South American Democracies in Comparative Perspective. South Bend, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Walker, I. (1992) “La Reforma Constitutional.” Mensaje (Santiago) 410 (July): 213–15.Google Scholar