Boric will face challenges on many sides in Chile

Significance It is arguably the most important political event in Chile since the 1988 referendum that led to the restoration of democracy after the 1973-90 Pinochet dictatorship. Impacts In the presidential election, a growing generational cleavage emerged as a new feature of Chilean politics. Financial markets, which initially reacted negatively to Boric’s election, will be looking closely at his choice of finance minister. Chile’s likely economic situation in 2022 and 2023 does not look propitious for Boric’s proposed fiscally expensive reforms.

Political Subjectivation, Generation, and Postmemory: Understanding the Activists of the 2011 Chilean Student Movement

Analysis of the life stories of three activists involved in the 2011 student mobilization in Chile reveals a particular articulation of the painful memories of their parents, who had been political radicals before or during the Pinochet dictatorship, that allowed them to build a perspective on their own struggle and develop effective narratives that fueled their activism. The research sheds light on the nature of postmemory and political subjectivation in transitional societies. El análisis de las historias de vida de tres activistas involucrados en la movilización estudiantil de 2011 en Chile revela una particular articulación de los dolorosos recuerdos de sus padres, quienes fueran radicales políticos antes o durante la dictadura de Pinochet. Esto les permitió construir una perspectiva sobre su propia lucha y desarrollar narrativas efectivas para alimentar su activismo. La investigación se enfoca en la naturaleza de la posmemoria y la subjetivación política en las sociedades en transición.

‘It Was Like a Space of Resistance’

This article examines the function of music for female political prisoners during the Pinochet Dictatorship in Chile. The discussion draws on a thematic analysis of testimonies about music by female prisoners from the platform Cantos Cautivos (“Captive Songs”). The article discusses musical happenings, genres of music being performed (e.g., Nueva Canción), and the ways in which music-making was organised. In particular, the article highlights the importance of communal singing. This article also addresses cultural and collective memory and the role that they play in these recollections.

Concluding reflections

In October 2020, Chilean voters resoundingly elected to abandon the constitution left behind by the Pinochet dictatorship. A new charter will be written by a fully elected, gender-balanced, constitutional convention. Given that Chilean political leaders have floated the idea of jettisoning the 1980 constitution for the last 35 years, what accounts for their decisive step at this point? Summarising and reflecting on the contributions to this special issue, I argue that the October 2020 vote was, in a sense, the result of decades of popular resistance, nurtured and informed by rich and tragic historical memories and experiences. The October result demonstrated an understanding of how to mobilise and energise a huge and diverse base of popular support as well a keen awareness of how to prepare for the violence that inevitably was launched against it.

Chile’s Constitutional Moment

In an October 2020 referendum, nearly 80 percent of Chileans voted to start a process to write a new constitution. A special assembly with equal representation of men and women will now attempt to replace the 1980 dictatorship-era constitution. Getting to this point was a major win for workers, students, leftists, feminists, Indigenous peoples, and the poor, all of whom were involved in leading 2019’s widespread protests over social and economic inequality. The demonstrations forced the conservative government to make the concession of holding the referendum. Chile now embarks on the fraught process of writing a new constitution that must satisfy diverse stakeholders while reforming political and economic systems that have preserved the legacy of the Pinochet dictatorship.

Lost in transition? The persistence of dictatorship mayors

We look at Chile’s transition to democracy in 1990 to study the persistence of authoritarian politics at the local level. Using new data on the universe of mayors appointed by the Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990), and leveraging on the arbitrary election rules that characterized the first local election in 1992, we present two main findings. First, dictatorship mayors obtained a vote premium that is larger among the last wave of incumbents and appears partially explained by an increase in local spending. Second, dictatorship mayors who were democratically elected in 1992 brought votes for the parties that collaborated with the dictatorship in subsequent elections held in democracy. These results show that the body of politicians appointed by a dictatorship can contribute to the persistence of elites and institutions.

Protest and the persistence of the past

Protest has long been a motor of change in Chile. In October to December 2019 protesters in Santiago harnessed protest methods and memories of hope and change related to Salvador Allende’s Popular Unity government (1970–3), resistance to the Pinochet dictatorship (1973–90) and discontent with the subsequent decades of neoliberal democracy (1990–2019). The 2019 protests evoked this past in the struggle against the neoliberal system of today. In doing so, the protests offer a complex demonstration of temporal bridging that provides a window onto protest culture and the persistence of the past in contemporary Chile.

Why Is It So Difficult to Reform Collective Labour Law? Associational Power and Policy Continuity in Chile in Comparative Perspective

Since Chile returned to democracy in 1990, centre-left governments have tried to reform the provisions on collective bargaining, strikes and unions established by the Pinochet dictatorship. Between 2015 and 2016 President Michelle Bachelet made the latest attempt to reform them. Despite favourable conditions, the changes were modest. This article explains why this is so. Drawing upon the notion of ‘associational power’ and through comparisons with labour reforms in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, this article suggests that the imbalance between workers’ and employers’ collective power is key for explaining why pro-labour reforms fail.

Promoting a ‘Pinochetazo’: The Chilean Dictatorship's Foreign Policy in El Salvador during the Carter Years, 1977–81

This article takes existing histories of Chilean transnational anti-communist activity in the 1970s beyond Operation Condor (the Latin American military states’ covert transnational anti-communist intelligence and operations system) by asking how the Pinochet dictatorship responded to two key changes in the international system towards the end of that decade: the Carter presidency and introduction of the human rights policy, and the shift of the epicentre of the Cold War in Latin America to Central America. It shows how both Salvadoreans and Chileans understood the Pinochet dictatorship as a distinct model of anti-communist governance, applicable far beyond Chile's own borders. This study of Chilean foreign policy in El Salvador contributes to new histories of the Latin American Extreme Right and to new understandings of the inter-American system and the international history of the conflicts in Central America in the late 1970s and the 1980s.