After a decade of dictatorship, the resurrection of democratic forces in Chile began with the debt crisis and recession of the early 1980s. Mass demonstrations erupted and political parties revived with unexpected vigor despite the repression of General Augusto Pinochet's regime. The United States pressed for democratization. In 1988, to the astonishment of the world, Pinochet allowed his oppenents to win an honest plebiscite and accepted the resulting transition to democracy. The Struggle for Democracy in Chile, 1982-1990 is the first book to discuss in comprehensive detail that unusual transition. This book provides background on the evolution of the military dictatorship in the 1970s and then concentrates on its erosion in the 1980s. It concludes with the installation of Patricio Aylwin as the democratically elected president in 1990. Here, eleven leading experts examine how the most significant social and political sectors reacted to liberalization in the 1980s, and how the opposition took advantage of the dictatorship's own legality to bring about an end to authoritarian rule. First the book examines the Pinochet regime's supporters, with essays by Arturo Valenzuela ("The Military Power"), Augusto Varas ("The Crisis of Legitimacy of Authoritarianism"), Eduardo Silva ("The Political Economy of Regime Transition"), and Guillermo Campero ("Entrepreneurs under the Military Regime"). Second, it studies Pinochet's opponents, with chapters by María Elena Valenzuela ("The New Roles of Women"), Alan Angell ("Unions and Workers in the 1980s"), Manuel Antonio Garretón ("The Political Opposition and the Party System"), Carlos Portales ("External Factors and the Authoritarian Regime"), and Felipe Larraín ("The Economic Challenges of Democratic Development").

This revised edition of The Struggle for Democracy in Chile should prove even more useful to the student of Latin American history and politics than the original. It updates important background information on the evolution of Chile?s military dictatorship in the 1970s and its erosion in the 1980s. Brian Loveman, an authority on contemporary Chilean politics, offers a comprehensive examination of the transition to civilian government in Chile from 1990 to 1994 in a substantial new chapter. Loveman chronicles the rise of the Concertaci¢n coalition, the strained relations between General Pinochet?s military and President Alwyn?s civilian government, and the roles of the National Women?s Service (SERNAM), the Catholic Church, and the indigenous peoples of Chile. All eleven essays by the leading authorities on the Pinochet regime from the earlier edition have been retained. The bibliography has been updated and the index improved. ø The Struggle for Democracy in Chile remains the first and foremost book on the transition over the last twenty-five years from dictatorship to democracy in Chile.

This book provides an in-depth analysis of neo-liberal and progressive economic reforms and policies implemented in Chile since the Pinochet dictatorship. The core thesis of the book is that there is not just 'one Chilean economic model', but that several have been in force since the coup of 1973.

This book argues that - in terms of institutional design, the allocation of power and privilege, and the lived experiences of citizens - democracy often does not restart the political game after displacing authoritarianism. Democratic institutions are frequently designed by the outgoing authoritarian regime to shield incumbent elites from the rule of law and give them an unfair advantage over politics and the economy after democratization. Authoritarianism and the Elite Origins of Democracy systematically documents and analyzes the constitutional tools that outgoing authoritarian elites use to accomplish these ends, such as electoral system design, legislative appointments, federalism, legal immunities, constitutional tribunal design, and supermajority thresholds for change. The study provides wide-ranging evidence for these claims using data that spans the globe and dates from 1800 to the present. Albertus and Menaldo also conduct detailed case studies of Chile and Sweden. In doing so, they explain why some democracies successfully overhaul their elite-biased constitutions for more egalitarian social contracts.

Contains primary source material.

Democracy is the ability to participate freely and equally in the political and economic affairs of the country. Americans have relied on philosophical pragmatism and on the impulse of political progressivism to express those creedal democratic values. Achieving Democracy argues that, in the last 30 years, however, by focusing on free markets and small government, America has since lost its grasp on these crucial democratic values. Economically, the vast majority of Americans have been made worse off due to a historically unprecedented redistribution of wealth from the lower and middle classes to the top one percent. Politically, partisan gridlock has hampered efforts to seek fairer taxes, responsive and effective regulation, reliable health care, and better education, among other needs. Achieving Democracy critiques the history of the last 30 years of neoliberal government in the United States, and enables an understanding of the dynamic and changing nature of contemporary government and the future of the regulatory state. Sidney A. Shapiro and Joseph P. Tomain demonstrate how lessons from the past can be applied today to regain essential democratic losses within the successful framework of a progressive government to ultimately construct a good society for all citizens.