Political reform and presidential election in Chile

I invite you to read my last column on political reform and the forthcoming presidential (and parliamentary) election in Chile. Just click here.

The election are to be held this Sunday in Chile, and will mean the renewal of the entire Deputy House (our lower chamber) and half of the Senate (our upper chamber). The latter because Senators tenure last for 8 year, renewing half of the chamber (according to pair or unpair region number) every 4 years.

The presidential election in Chile is very important for a number of reason. First, becomes it means, in general, the election of our head of State and Head of Government. Following US presidential system, chilean constitution provides for a very strong President, that has a great number of powers in several levels, including the appointment of main ministerial and administrative positions, the proposal of some of the members of Chile´s main political and economic institutions (Central Bank, Constitutional Court, Supreme Court, General Attorney, National Council on Television, and so on), legislative initiative, powers to conduct international relations and sign treaties, among others. Second, the specific relevance of this election consist in that is the first one in which the centre-right coalition holds serious chances of winning the presidency. Its candidate, Sebastian Piñera, has managed to make a good campaign, hold together its party coalition very strongly, and to take advantage of the mistakes of the official coalition. The question for the electoral results remains open, but there are good chances of watching what in some of the transitology literature (scholars interested in transition from authoritarian rule, like Pinochet´s dictatorship, to democracy) is called "the two turover test". This emplies that for considering a democratic transition as consolidated, one needs to observe the first two turovers, the first concerning the transition from dictatorship to democracy and the other from the new (or renewed) democratic party (or coalitin) in office to the alternative coalition. In the case of Chile the first turnover was produced in 1989, when the first presidential election were held after the dictatorship. Patricio Aylwin won with a landside in first round to the right candidate. After four presidential periods under the same coalition ruling, an alliance between several humanist-socialist parties and the christian democratic party, this election may see the second turnover, from the centre-left coalition to the centre-right.