1. From Democracy to Democracy: Continuities and Changes of Electoral Choices and the Party System in Chile
- Author:
- Timothy R. Scully and J. Samuel Valenzuela
- Publication Date:
- 07-1993
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Kellogg Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- After almost seventeen years of authoritarian rule with no regular national elections, Chileans have once again expressed themselves in the polls. The central question addressed in this paper is the extent to which there are continuities in the current elections with the past choices of the voters. This question is examined by comparing current vote totals by party and by tendency with those of the past, and by correlating the votes in the elections of 1969, 1970, and 1973 with the 1988 plebiscite and the 1989 presidential and parliamentary elections. The results show that there is a remarkable consistency of electoral choices in the country, which is still divided into left, center, and right tendencies. And yet there have been changes. New party labels have emerged, and the party system is currently much more centripetal than it was in the past, given a significant degree of consensus among the main political forces over the value of democracy as well as over fundamental socioeconomic policies. Whether these changes will prove to be long lasting in the face of renewed electoral competition over the next years is still an open question.
- Topic:
- Authoritarianism, Democracy, Voting Behavior, and Political Behavior
- Political Geography:
- South America and Chile