Anti-institutional Polarization in Institutionalized Chile

• In Event: The New Polarization in Latin America and Its Implications for Democracy

Abstract

The eruption of massive popular protests in Chile in October 2019—sparked by a rise in subway fares but soon galvanizing around a wide set of socio-economic demands—startled many Chileans and external observers. A country long thought of as one of Latin America’s biggest economic success stories and most consensus-oriented political systems revealed itself to be harshly divided. The central rift behind the protests is that between the country’s social, political, and economic establishment on the one hand and the majority of Chileans, who feel excluded from and abused by that establishment on the other. A fractured political party system unable to channel demands and perceived as out of touch with peoples’ desire for change has opened deep fissures in the society, which have been exacerbated by COVID 19. The national elections of 2021, as well as the Constitutional Convention (2021-2022) occurred in this structural context. This paper will analyze and explain the nature of polarization observed in Chile in recent years. In particular the paper will discuss how left-right polarization in the party system, which has increased in recent years, does not automatically map onto the observed polarization between political elites and citizens. Regarding the latter type of polarization, the paper advances the claim that anti-system polarization has not mapped consistently onto political choice, but rather, it has provided a rationale for the advance of informality and illegality by increasing allegiance of anti-state/institutions preferences among a large segment of society (approximately 50 percent of the citizenry) currently alienated from electoral politics.  

Author

• Juan Pablo Luna, Instituto de Ciencia Política, PUC-Chile