Rethinking the Chilean Party Systems

Journal of Latin American Studies

Volumn 32, Issue 3, 2000, Pages 795-824

  Montes, J Esteban ^a   Mainwaring, Scott ^a   Ortega, Eugenio ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME   (United States)

^b Ministerio del Interior   (Chile)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 85010096884     PISSN: 0022216X     EISSN: 1469767X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0022216X00005873     Document Type: Article

References (41)

1. On this point, also see the excellent work of J. Samuel Valenzuela, Oragenes y transformaciones del sistema de partidos en Chile ‘, Estudios PuUblicos, no. 58 (1995).
2. A. Valenzuela, Political Brokers in Chile “ Local Government in a Centralized Polity (Durham, CO, 1977), p. x, ix A. Valenzuela, The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes “ Chile, vol. 4 of J. Linz and A. Stepan (eds.), The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes (Baltimore, 1978), p. 3; F. Gil, The Political System of Chile (Boston, 1966), pp. 312-313; M. A. Garretón, The Chilean Political Process (Boston, 1989), p. xvi. See also J. S. Valenzuela, Oragenes’, p. 10.
3. Between 1932 and 1973, the mean district magnitude for the Chamber of Deputies was 5.7 with a range of one to eighteen deputies per district. The district magnitude for the Senate was five in every district. Since 1989, the district magnitude in all districts for both chambers has been two.
4. Gil, The Political System, p. 79. See also E. Wu$ rth, IbaUnh ez “ Caudillo enigmaUtico (Santiago, 1958).
5. S. Carrasco, Alessandri “ Su pensamiento constitucional. Resenha de su vida puUblica (Santiago, 1987), p. 58.
6. A. Angell, Chile de Alessandri a Pinochet “ En busca de la utopéa (Santiago, 1993), p. 37.
7. In December 1999 Errázuriz led a coup in the party to overthrow the elected party president because of political disagreements. See La Tercera, UCC: el golpe de estado de Francisco Javier Errázuriz:, December 31, 1999.
8. E. Tironi, El Mercurio, January 9 2000.
9. S. M. Lipset and S. Rokkan, Cleavage Structures, Party Systems and Voter Alignments’, in S. M. Lipset and S. Rokkan (eds.), Party Systems and Voter Alignments (New York, 1967).
10. S. Mainwaring and T. Scully, Introduction “ Party Systems in Latin America’, in S. Mainwaring and T. Scully (eds.), Building Democratic Institutions “ Party Systems in Latin America (Stanford, 1995), p. 13.
11. R. Dix, Cleavage Structures and Party Systems in Latin America’, Comparative Politics, vol. 22, no. 1 (1992) Mainwaring and Scully, Introduction ‘, pp. 14-15.
12. For Chile, Mainwaring and Scully give an average age of 37 for parties with at least 10 per cent of lower chamber seats. In contrast to Mainwaring and Scully, we believe that the PPD and the PS must be seen as different parties. The PPD was founded in 1987 and by 1993 it was 6 years old. Although the UDI was legally founded in 1987, it really began to exist in 1983. This explains our different value for the percentage of lower chamber seats held by parties that existed in 1950.
13. Some exceptions are W. H. Agor, The Chilean Senate “ Internal Distribution of Influence (Austin, 1971) J. Carey, Electoral Reform and the Chilean Legislative Party System’, paper for the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, 1998; and J. Carey, Party and Coalition Unity in Legislative Voting’, Washington University Department of Political Science, Working Paper no. 376 (1999).
14. Carey, Electoral Reform’ and Carey, Party and Coalition ‘.
15. Gil, The Political System, p. 121. See also Electoral Reform’ and Carey., p. 74.
16. There are many published studies on single parties in Chile, but most of them devote little systematic attention to parties as organisations. Gil, The Political System, which includes a good though brief section on parties as organisations, is among the partial exceptions.
17. Gil, The Political System, p. 281.
18. P. Oxhorn, Organizing Civil Society “ The Popular Sectors and Democracy in Chile (University Park, 1995) C. Schneider, Shantytown Protest in Pinochet's Chile (Philadelphia, 1995) A. Angell, Politics and the Labour Movement in Chile (London, 1972) Angell, Chile de Alessandri a Pinochet J. S. Valenzuela, Labor Movement'; A. Valenzuela, The Breakdown.
19. Oxhorn, Organizing Civil Society K. Roberts, Deepening Democracy? The Modern Left and Social Movements in Chile and Peru (Stanford, 1998).
20. E. Boeninger, Chile, su futura democracia’, in E. Frei (ed.), Futura institucionalidad de la paz en Chile (Santiago, 1977) A. Valenzuela, The Breakdown; M. Gó ngora, Ensayo histoUrico sobre la nocioUn de estado en Chile en los siglos XIX y XX (Santiago, 1985) C. Gazmuri, Algunos antecedentes acerca de la gestación de la crisis chilena de 1970-1973’, Opciones, no. 9 (1986) F. Agu$ ero, G. Sunkel, E. Tironi and E. Valenzuela, Voters, Parties and Political Intermediation in Post-Authoritarian Chile ‘, paper for the XX International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, Guadalajara, April 17-19, 1997.
21. Moulian, La forja de ilusiones C. Huneeus, Los chilenos y la polética “ Cambio y continuidad en el autoritarismo (Santiago, 1987) J. Auth, Elecciones presidenciales y parlamentarias de 1993’, Estudios PuUblicos, no. 54 (Fall 1994).
22. J. S. Valenzuela, Respuesta a Eugenio Tironi y Felipe Agu$ ero: Reflexiones sobre el presente y futuro del paisaje polatico chileno a la luz de su pasado’, Estudios PuUblicos, no. 75 (winter 1999), p. 284.
23. Carey, Electoral Reform.’ E. Tironi and F. Agu$ ero, ‘Sobrevivirá el nuevo paisaje polatico chileno? ‘ Estudios Públicos, no. 74 (fall 1999). For a counter-argument, see J. S. Valenzuela, Respuesta’.
24. M. S. Shugart and J. M. Carey, Presidents and Assemblies “ Constitutional Design and Electoral Dynamics (Cambridge, 1992), pp. 206-25.
25. Roberts, Deepening Democracy? I. Walker, Socialismo y democracia “ Chile y Europa en perspectiva comparada (Santiago, 1990).
26. P. Siavelis, Continuity and Change in the Chilean Party System: On the Transformational Effects of Electoral Reform, Comparative Political Studies, vol. 30, no. 6 (1997), p. 666.
27. J. S. Valenzuela, Oragenes’, p. 74.
28. J. S. Valenzuela, Oragenes’, p. 10. A. Valenzuela, Political Brokers, p. 10. Other works that emphasize continuity include R. Ayres, Unidad Popular and the Chilean Electoral Process’, in Arturo Valenzuela and J. Samuel Valenzuela (eds.), Chile “ Politics and Society (New Brunswick, 1976) J. Prothro and P. Chaparro, Public Opinion and the Movement of Chilean Government to the Left, 1952-1972’, in Valenzuela and Valenzuela, Chile E. Saffirio, El sistema de partidos y la sociedad civil en la redemocratización chilena ‘, Estudios Sociales, vol. 82, no. 4 (1994) Siavelis, Continuity’ A. Valenzuela and J. S. Valenzuela, Party Oppositions under the Chilean Authoritarian Regime’, in J. Samuel Valenzuela and Arturo Valenzuela (eds.), Military Rule in Chile “ Dictatorship and Oppositions (Baltimore, 1986).
29. Carey, Electoral Reform’ and Party and Coalition’ Tironi and Agu$ ero, ‘Sobrevivirá el nuevo paisaje polatico chileno?’.
30. Valenzuela and Scully, Electoral Choices’, p. 524. A. Angell, Political Parties in Chile ‘, in S. White, D. Stansfield and P. Webb (eds.), Political Parties in Transitional Democracies, forthcoming, agrees with this viewpoint. Another example is A. Valenzuela's seminal, The Breakdown.
31. J. S. Valenzuela, Respuesta’, p. 287.
32. Juan Linz showed that at the provincial level in Spain, there was a correlation of. 60 between the PSOE's 1936 vote and its 1977 vote. See The New Spanish Party System’, in R. Rose (ed.), Electoral Participation (Beverly Hills, CA, 1980), p. 103. He also shows high correlations between the 1936 left vote and the Communists (.68) and Socialists (.54) in 1977, and correlations that are higher than those found in Chile between the rightist CEDA vote in 1936 and the vote for the UCD (.46) and the AP (.35) in 1977. The 41 year hiatus between elections was more than twice as long as that in Chile the lengthier hiatus should, other things being equal, have fostered greater change and a lower correlation.
33. Valenzuela and Scully, p. 521.
34. M. Pedersen, Changing Patterns of Electoral Volatility in European Party Systems, 1948-1977” Explorations in Explanation’, in H. Daalder and P. Mair (eds.), Western European Party Systems “ Continuity and Change (Beverly Hills, 1983). See also A. Przeworski, Institutionalization of Voting Patterns, or is Mobilization the Source of Decay? ‘, American Political Science Review, vol. 85 no. 3 (Sep. 1975).
35. Mainwaring and Scully, Introduction ‘, pp. 8-10 and M. Coppedge, Freezing in the Tropics” Explaining Party System-Volatility in Latin America’, paper for the Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, April 6-8, 1995, provide data on electoral volatility for several Latin American countries.
36. We calculated volatility for 1965-73 by grouping parties into the two coalitions for the 1965 election as they coalesced in 1973.
37. Bartolini and Mair, Identity, Competition Siavelis, Continuity’ J. S. Valenzuela, Oragenes’.
38. Bartolini and Mair, Identity, Competition, pp. 75-81.
39. This feature of the party system is emphasised by A. Valenzuela, The Breakdown; Siavelis, Continuity’ S. Micco and E. Saffirio, Tipo de gobierno presidencial y regimen polatico democratico “Quiebre y redemocratizacion en Chile”, unpubl. Master's thesis, Universidad Catolica de Chile, 1993.
40. Siavelis, Continuity’.
41. Roberts, Deepening Democracy? Scully, Rethinking the Center and Reconstituting’ J. S. Valenzuela, Oragenes’ Walker, Socialismo y democracia.