Chilean Democratization

A history of Chilean democratization.

Kingdom of Chile and Araucanía

Within the viceroyalty of Peru, the captaincy general of Chile was established in 1541. In the 18th century it consolidated influence over a broad region covering the southern portion of South America, and came to be known as the Kingdom of Chile.

The Mapuche mounted a series of revolts which culminated in the destruction or abandonment of Angol, La Imperial, Osorno, Santa Cruz de Oñez, Valdivia and Villarrica. The Spanish were expelled from Araucanía and the Bío-Bío River Valley became a fortified frontier.

The southeastern portion of the viceroyalty of Peru, which included much of the kingdom's jurisdiction, was split off in 1776 to establish the viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata.

War of Independence

When the Junta of Seville fell in early 1810, a regime known as Patria Vieja emerged. The First Junta was nominally led by Toro Zambrano but effective power was held by the secretary, Juan Martínez de Rozas. Zambrano died the next year and Rozas formally succeeded him. This provisional government declared itself royalist despite usurping the powers of the royal governor. The first elections for the National Congress were held in early 1811. However, the anti-royalist José Miguel Carrera seized power in late 1811 by forcing Congress to dissolve.

The Spanish mounted a counter-invasion in 1813 and the junta found itself divided between Carrera and Bernardo O'Higgins. The Battle of Rancagua in October 1814 marked the Reconquista of Chile.

Rebels including Carrera and O'Higgins fled to Argentina and regrouped with José de San Martín. The counter-counter-invasion was launched in early 1817. The Battle of Maipú in 1818 was a decisive victory, and forced the royalists back to Concepción. Independence was declared and the Patria Nueva regime emerged.

The most durable consequences of this era are the political factions built by Carrera (i.e., the Pipiolos) and O'Higgins (i.e., the Pelucones).

Constitutional Crises

O'Higgins served as the first supreme director but quickly lost the support of the landowning aristocracy, the Church, and the business class. He promulgated two separate constitutions during his term.

In 1823, he was deposed by Ramón Freire of the Pipiolos. He promulgated the controversial 'moralist' constitution, although it was quickly scrapped. The highlight of Freire's short term as supreme director is abolition of slavery.

Acting still without constitutional order, the National Congress resolved on indirect election of the presidency. A candidate needed only a simple majority to be declared winner. Manuel Blanco Encalada and Agustín Eyzaguirre were elected president and vice president, respectively, in July 1826. Encalada resigned within a few months however, and Eyzaguirre's term lasted only a few months more.

Enrique Campino organized a coup in January 1827. Freire served only as a figurehead for the movement; within months he resigned in favor of his vice president, Francisco Antonio Pinto. The 1828 Constitution finally settled on a bicameral Congress composed of a Chamber of Deputies and a Senate. It also confirmed the indirect election system for the presidency.

The presidential election in 1829 led directly into the First Civil War. While Pinto was the undisputed winner, Joaquín Vicuña was declared vice president despite coming in 4th behind Francisco Ruiz-Tagle and José Joaquín Prieto (both of the Pelucones). Prieto launched a mass rebellion; Freire was once again pulled from retirement to lead the government's armies; Pinto resigned in favor of Francisco Ramón Vicuña, who was president of the Senate and brother to the aforementioned presidential candidate. Ultimately, the Pelucones emerged as the victors.

Conservative Republic

The 1833 Constitution established a unitary Catholic state. Presidents served 5 year terms with a two term limit. What followed was a series of hand-picked successors that maintained Pelucones dominance; Prieto served for 2 terms, then Manuel Bulnes served two terms, then Manuel Montt served two terms. The Pipiolos twice tried to overthrow the government, in 1851 and 1859, but failed both times.

As part of settling the 1859 rebellion, Montt promised to make the moderate José Joaquín Pérez his successor. Pérez did prove to be a conciliatory leader; he granted amnesty for rebellions in the prior decade and reformed the constitution to disallow consecutive terms. (Note that this reform came during his second, coincidentally consecutive, term.) The Pipiolos became a competitive and, indeed, the dominant party.

Liberal Republic

In this reform era, the Liberal Party (Partido Liberal) emerged as dominant. Meanwhile the Pelucones splintered, with the National Party (Partido Nacional) emerging as the more influential successor.

Aníbal Pinto, who had been elected president in 1876, intervened in the 1881 presidential elections to ensure that Domingo Santa María succeeded him. This began a series of blatantly non-free elections.

This era saw territorial consolidation:

• To the south, Araucanía was incorporated into the republic through a military occupation that lasted from the 1860s until 1883.

• Through the War of the Pacific, Chile pushed north into Bolivia and Peru.

• Chile had also maintained a claim to all of Patagonia since independence, sparking conflict with Argentina. Ultimately this was resolved through the Boundary Treaty of 1881, in which the Strait of Magellan was recognized as Chilean and eastern Patagonia was recognized as Argentine.

By 1889, the Pipiolos were fragmenting under José Manuel Balmaceda. Heading into the last year of his term, Congress refused to pass a 1891 budget. Balmaceda declared that the 1890 budget was extended. Congress in turn declared him deposed. This triggered the Second Civil War. While the Army remained loyal to Balmaceda, the Navy answered to Congress.

Congress attempted to purchase arms from the United States, wherein there was substantial private support through aristocratic ties. James Blaine barred the Itata from embarking for Chile; the Navy pursued and recovered it when it slipped from port anyway. Taft and Henry Gage were tasked with prosecution; the former failed to obtain convictions against the suppliers and the latter refused to charge the crew. In the end, Congress purchased arms from Germany instead.

The Army was defeated in the Battle of Placilla in August 1891, and Balmaceda fled the country.

Parliamentary Era

A pseudo-parliamentary system emerged, in that the executive branch remained separate but was substantially diminished.

In September 1924, during the presidency of Arturo Alessandri, the ruido de sables (noise of sabers) led to a regime change. Congress was deadlocked and Army officers began to strike for their wages. They then formed a committee that submitted directives to Alessandri; Luis Altamirano became the effective head of state. Alessandei resigned and appealed for asylum abroad, but officially his resignation was rejected and Altamirano ruled as vice president. This regime became known as the September Junta.

Fellow leaders of the military committee Marmaduke Grove and Carlos Ibáñez del Campo conspired to seize power and restore Alessandei. The coup was launched in January 1925, and Pedro Dartnell was named head of the January Junta. Power was finally returned to Alessandei when he returned in March.

Presidential Republic

A constitutional referendum was held in August 1925. It confirmed the new 1925 Constitution, which established a presidential democracy. This era is generally known as Desarrollo hacia adentro (development inwards).

In 1973, the government was overthrown by a junta led by Augusto Pinochet, Gustavo Leigh, and César Mendoza. Pinochet consolidated power and was declared president the next year. Leigh meanwhile had attempted to establish a separation of powers, but was consequently removed and replaced by Fernando Matthei.

Pinochet projected the image of a technocratic government. He promulgated the 1980 Constitution, which established a complex proportional representation system. Each region had two seats selected from distinct party lists; the consequence being that the runner-ups in each region are over-represented. His associated with Chicago school economics for policy advice. He used remote diplomatic posts to remove political opponents, as seen in the assignment of Arturo Yovane to Tehran.

The murders of three human rights activists (all members of the Communist Party) in 1985 led to several highly publicized trails, convictions, and ultimately the resignation of Mendoza from the junta. Rodolfo Stange replaced him.

Democratization

In October 1988, a presidential plebiscite was held to choose between a second 8-year term for Pinochet, or outright free elections. About 56% of the public voted against the regime; Pinochet's government then drafted a series of constitutional amendments and put them forward for another referendum, now held in July 1989, and these too passed. Free elections were organized for later that year.

Patricio Aylwin led Concertación to win the December general election by a landslide. He was sworn in as president in March 1981, finally ending the Pinochet regime.

Per the 1980 constitution, the Senate included unelected members who were appointed by Pinochet. This continued until a constitutional amendment was passed in 2005.

Social Outburst

In October 2019, mass protests began in response to a fare hike in the Santiago Metro, but more generally over worsening socioeconomic inequality. This was referred to variably as a estallido social (social outburst) or as a wave of octubrismo (Octoberism). It is considered to have lasted until the defeat of the second plebiscite in September 2022.

Sebastián Piñera attempted to suppress the protests by deploying the military and invoking security laws. In particular, use of medida cautelar (preventative prison) to detain protestors indefinitely without trial became widespread.

The government was nonetheless quickly forced to broker a cross-party agreement for a constitutional plebiscite. Held in October 2020, the public overwhelmingly voted to elect a Constitutional Convention to draft a new constitution. This election was held in May 2021, and remarkably the two party system collapsed; Vamos por Chile retained the first place position but fell short of a majority, Lista del Apruebo fell to fourth place, and over a third of the elected members were independent.

This dissolution of conventional politics continued into the November 2021 presidential election. After the first round, Boric of the Frente Amplio and José Antonio Kast of the Republican Party were left, both minor parties at the time. Boric ultimately won the presidency.

In a September 2022 plebiscite however, the drafted Political Constitution of the Republic was rejected by a large margin. In May 2023, mandatory elections were held for a new Constitutional Council. Rightist parties led by the Republicans won a three-fifth, veto-proof majority in this body. Both of these outcomes were considered major defeats for the Boric government. However, the public also rejected the new constitution draft in a December 2023 plebiscite. Altogether, it remains unclear if there is general support for rewriting the constitution.

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