Social policy in the programs of the political parties of Chile: the experience of content analysis

Abstract

The presidential, parliamentary and regional elections were held at the same time, on November 21, 2021 in Chile. Earlier in the same period, elections were held throughout the Latin American region. Extreme political fragmentation was recorded during these elections. Also, a feature of electronic processes can be called socio-political instability and the associated high degree of protest potential of citizens. The article attempts to conduct a comparative analysis of the text of the programs of the political parties of Chile. The key areas of the studied documents were identified, while the political, economic, and social components were substantiated. The content analysis of the texts of the programs of the political parties of Chile was carried out, the share of content units analyzed by spheres was revealed. The conclusions about the increasing importance of the topics of social policy, social protection and social security in the era of a new, pandemic, world order were verified. Visualization and statistical analysis of the results were made using the SigmaPlot program, version 12.5. The author's conclusions about the importance of the social sphere are also confirmed by electoral practice. An extremely interesting election took place in Chile, dividing the electoral field almost in half on ideological grounds. At the same time, all participants in the electoral process used the “social theme”. Reconciliation and the development of a national consensus will be the task of the young (at the time of the election, only 35 years old) President Gabriel Boric, he successfully integrated accents of left-liberal and social orientation in his election program. Recent events in Chile add relevance to the study: a referendum on the adoption of a new, socially oriented constitution of the country is scheduled for September 4, 2022. Also, another wave of protests, also recorded in September 2022, is directly related to such a social segment as education.