Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Political Science Democracy in Chile On the Rise Democracy in Chile On the Rise General Augusto Pinochet gained power during a blood-filled coup during 1973 when his militaristic, authoritarian rule began. He continued to rule in a brutal regime of repression and human rights abuse until 1989 when his regime was lifted in favor of a more democratic system. Since 1990, Chile seems to be on the right track to re-establishing a once strong democracy that will continue to strengthen in the future. The three factors that have increased the likelihood of this success are the tripartite party system, institutionalization of the party system, and reduction of the ideological polarization that gripped the country. Finally, some of the elements of change were present to ensure a successful push to instate democratic principles. Chile’s tripartite system has been most of the strongest factors in the success of its democracy. Before the military coup of Pinochet in 1973, the tripartite system was seen as the anchor of the Chile’s democracy, which was arguably seen as the strongest in Latin America. When Pinochet took over, these systems remained dormant, but they were not dismantled because they did not serve as a major obstacle to the democratic demise in 1973. When Pinochet’s rule was lifted, this party system reemerged with little change from the pre-Pinochet era. Within this system, there is a clear right, left, and center which all are able to reign in a solid proportion of votes. After Pinochet’s rule, these parties have led to the increased representation for the citizens, and the increased competition between the political parties. These two characteristics lie at the core of a good democratic foundation. Furthermore, the fact that the party system was still in effect after nearly 17 years of dormancy demonstrates strong evidence that there is a strong sense of political identity, and it also shows that the citizens are aligned with its political leaders. The strong nature of the tripartite system has also led to a barrier to dominant party system development since it is not very likely that any one party of the system is likely to dominate the electorate on a consistent basis. The tri-party system is the strongest element of democracy within Chile, and it will continue to drive the democratic process. The highly institutionalized nature of the political parties before the Pinochet regime remained relatively unchanged during his rule. So, this has served as an instrument for democratic stability since 1990. The institutional nature of the parties has made their influence national in scope, and it has also led to the avoidance of personalistic domination. The personalistic domination has been limited by the parties’ reliance on their internal rules which control how the government is run. This has prohibited their leaders from changing the government rules to tailor the system to their individual needs as they have in many other Latin American countries. Pinochet did not see the highly institutionalized nature of the government as being a threat to his rule because he was so reliant on military enforcement of his policies and the repression of any opposition to remain in control. Hence, just as the political parties emerged, they also brought back the institutionalized nature of their parties. For instance, the right, left, and center all gained at least one fourth of the vote during elections during the 1990s. The fact that the political parties are strengthening their hold or institutionalization on society indicates that the democracy in Chile is vibrant and strong. The final factor that has developed in the post-Pinochet era is the ideological breakdown that has occurred within Chile. This happened as a result of the political parties trying to realign themselves while struggling to deal with rule under Pinochet. This led to many of the parties to be more willing to sacrifice their ideological views in order to cooperate in their new, changing environment with Pinochet. The leftists suffered the most during Pinochet’s rule. As a result, there was a formation of 2 political parties led by Ricardo Nuñez and Clodomiro Almeyda. These parties later merged. The centrists formed alliances with leftist parties which was a departure from their ideological base of making their ‘own path’ for the citizens of Chile. The concentration of party ideology was one of the factors that led to the fall of democracy in 1973 when Pinochet gained power. Hence, this was an important development that has continued to strengthen the democracy since 1990. While there are still problems within Chile that continue to threaten their democratic vitality, it seems as if they have a solid base upon which to build for the future. In addition, the elements for a proper change in democracy were present in that the political parties were still intact, military reduced severity of their actions, and the country made it clear that it did not want socialism to reoccur. Furthermore, the institutionalization of political parties, demise of ideology based government, and the tripartite system have provided an infrastructure within Chile that should be strong enough to allow democracy to continue into the future. Many argue that the right will have to learn to adjust their ideological base if the democracy is to survive, but it will surely happen in that the continued pressure from the other parties will force them to make the eventual change. This will lead to a stronger democracy in Chile as the country seeks to emerge from the immediate post-Pinochet era into the twenty-first century. Bibliography: Word Count: 938
Copyright © 2005 College Term Papers, INC All Rights Reserved.