Chiles first main constitution was written in 1829 by the de facto ruler of Chile, Diego Portales. His main objective in initiating his constitution was to develop a central government ran solely by the chief executive. His constitution stayed in place until a new constitution was adopted in 1925 which gave focus on separating the church from the state and the dividing of government into four branches: the comptroller general, the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary.
In 1970, Salvador Allende became the first democratically elected Marxist president but was quickly overthrown in 1973 by a military coup ran by General Augusto Pinochet. Pinochet worked towards establishing a vicious dictatorship in which he ‘militarized’ the constitution in 1980 but was then reformed under civil government in 2005 (McSherry, 2005). The changes made to the constitution in 2005 are considered to be Chile’s biggest leap toward democracy.
Michelle Bachelet became the first female chief executive when she was elected as the fourth president since the end of the Pinochet era (Magstadt, 2017, p 235). Bachelet used her socialist approach to sway the citizens of Chile during her first president term from 2006-2009. Because Chile’s constitution stated that presidential runs cannot be served consecutively, Sebastian Pinera, billionaire leader of the center-right party, won election for the following term. During his term, Chile joined the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2010. After serving his four years, Bachelet won the following election by a landslide, serving her second term from 2013-2017.
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After reviewing the history of the Chile government, it would be fair to say that after Pinochet’s era was demolished and constitutional rights were placed back in the hands of civilians, things were back on track for Chile to become a better developed democracy. Bachelet used her first term of office to develop trust within the community, giving them hope of a positive future. Pinera, being part of the opposite party, focused on financial growth of his Country’s economy but didn’t hold any importance to the fairness of the citizens individually.
After becoming part of the OECD, it was made aware that Chile had the biggest gap between rich and poor (Magstadt, 2017, p 236). When Bachelet gained presidency for the second term in 2013, she focused her mission to diminish the unfairness that the Country was experiencing with a goal of social and economic equality for all through tax and education reforms. Bachelet had many accomplishments during her presidential run but when it was time for a new president to take over, things went right back in the opposite direction when Pinera was re-elected.
Chile shows structure through the use of a constitutional democracy. As stated prior, the country made significant changes to the constitution in 2005, with a goal of having easier reform practices in the future. Reducing the presidential term from 6 years to 4 years was one amendment produced during the 2005 change. This amendment gave citizens of Chile ease of mind with not giving one person too much power for too long, hoping to avoid repeating the past. Chile could better their democracy by allowing presidents to run for office for consecutive terms. This would allow for them to re-evaluate the president after their four-year term and have the choice to re-elect them if they feel they’re making positive remarks. Chile flipped between Bachelet and Pinera for multiple terms, making it so their efforts to change the economy couldn’t ever really be evaluated because by the time things were set into practice, their term would come to an end.
References
- Magstadt, T. M. (2017). Understanding politics: Ideas, institutions, and issues (12th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage.
- McSherry, J. (2018). Chile: A Return to ‘Guardian Democracy’? NACLA. Retrieved from https://nacla.org/news/2018/04/18/chile-return-‘guardian-democracy’
