The Collapse of Democracy in Chile

Abstract

The study of the de-democratization occurring in emerging democracies is one of the key research topics in comparative political science. Some scholars have found that the breakdown of democracy is related to some social structural factors. For example, the inequality of economic development, the degree of political fragmentation of the electorate, and the political institutional arrangements of democracies. Other scholars argue that the collapse of democracy is the result of the actions and choices of political elites. In order to preserve their wealth and status, political elites formed powerful coalitions to undermine democracies, which led to the reversal of democracy into authoritarian regime. Yet there is no single explanation for Chile's democratic collapse. Therefore, this study reviews the literature on the theory of democratic collapse, and analyzes the causes of the democratic collapse in Chile by combining the economic and social conditions of Chile in 1973. The research finds that Chile's democratic collapse is the result of a combination of elite revolt behavior and centrifugal political institutional arrangements. The intense class conflict violates the interests of the political elite and causes the political elite to rebel. At the same time, the centrifugal arrangement of the political system has left the state and the government lacking the ability to effectively counter the revolt behavior of the political elite.