Luna and Mardones 2010

Luna, Juan Pablo, and Rodrigo Mardones. 2010. "Chile: Are the Parties Over?" Journal of Democracy. 21 (3): 107-121.

• Bachelet was successful presdient
• able to improve democracy through removing some remaining enclaves of the authoritarian period, namely the guaranteed Senate seats (107)
• had handled export-oriented economy well (107-108)
• poverty dropped from 44% in 1990 to 13% in 2009 (108)
• Remaining Probs:
• power concentrated in executive
• parties not internally democratic
• voting rates have declined significantly
• inequality is still high, has not improved
• in 2010 Concertación had two previous leaders run on non Concertación tickets, split first round
• Pinera campaign focused on crime reduction and job creation through economic growth (109)
• Concertación kept majority in Senate, but lost majority in Chamber of Deputies
• 13% of registered voters did not vote
• Ideological division, factionalism over neoliberal policies in Concertación starting in 2002 (110)
• Argument:  Chile moving towards competitive oligarchy in Dahl’s (1971) formulation (111-113)
• Chile has low electoral volatility, both objectively and subjectively (112)
• but in 2009 only 68% of voting age people registered
• in 2012 law changed from voluntary registering and mandatory voting to mandatory registering and voluntary voting
• low level of party identification in Chile
• MEANS: parties disconnected from civil society
• Steps to diffuse power more widely after initial transition not taken (114)
• meaning party elites have control over candidates, which in turn means they have control over who wins elections (113)
• Bachelet promised a “citizens’ government”, but couldn’t get it because (114)
• needed coalitional support from rest of Concertación
• civil society is weak, INCLUDING: (114)
• trade unions (114)
• lost influence when Concertación turned their back in 1990s (115)
• student movements (114)
• civil society organizations focused on social issues (114)
• socioeconomic transformation fragment society and consolidated unequal distribution of opportunities (115)
• regional governors are presidential appointees (115)
• municipal authorities are elected, but have little financial or administrative autonomy
• Results of 201 might induce partisan adaptation, but maybe not (116)
• Concertación’s defenders say governments pushed neoliberalism toward greater social-democracy (117)
• Chile Solidario conditional cash transfer, 2002 under Lagos, other improvements
• Poverty dropping steadily (118)
• BUT: high inequality persists (117-118)
• Concertación did not increase government spending, ran surpluses (117)
• anyway, they would have been blocked in Congress by the right if they tried anything (117)
• Pinera focused on boosting economy and labor market flexibility, not promoting equality (119)
• unions and center-left currently act as opposition, block any chance of negotiating with Right Alianza (119)