Chile’s new Socialist president Michelle Bachelet will seek to maintain the country’s socioeconomic progress, but her attempt to cure growing alienation from the traditional parties could create a new set of problems. Chile’s success has owed much to the ability of disciplined parties with roots in society to agree for the sake of governance. The country still faces many challenges, including reducing inequality, renewing the educational system, and strengthening economic competitiveness. Chile’s leaders can best address them by working with the population to overhaul democratic institutions to make them more open, participatory, and responsive.
About the Authors
Arturo Valenzuela
Arturo Valenzuela is professor of government and director of the Center for Latin American Studies at Georgetown University. During the Clinton administration, he was deputy assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs and later senior director for inter-American affairs at the U.S. National Security Council.
The left-right ideological divide has begun to narrow in Latin America as citizens and leaders increasingly choose a pragmatic approach to politics and embrace the rules of the democratic game.
The unexpectedly strong showing of media-savvy rightist candidate Joaquín Lavín in the 1999 presidential elections and the move to the center by Concertación candidate Ricardo Lagos suggest that Chile has…
