Christian Democratic Government Research Articles

Europe Constructed, Europe Contested: Italian Media Responses to the Treaties of Rome

This article analyses Italian responses to the Treaties of Rome in 1957 by looking at media's role as a tool to both amplify voices and construct ideas on European integration. It attempts to expand upon and also challenges existing narratives on integration in Italy – which have tended to assume that ‘Euroscepticism’ largely emerged in a post-Maastricht context – by showing that the matter was already the source of significant politicisation and contestation, and that political actors used the outlets at their disposal to influence public opinion. Indeed, the Italian media conversations enveloping the Treaties of Rome – at a time when the introduction of RAI television was revolutionising the media landscape, and the Treaties were broadcast and politicised as a landmark event – highlight the variety of visions of European integration that had emerged. On the one hand, the ruling Christian Democratic government had radio and television under its harness, and used these channels to push a pro-integrationist orthodoxy on the Italian public. Nevertheless, we also see dissenting visions expressed in much of the printed press, not only from the anti-Western Communists and Socialists, but also from a broad church including neo-fascists, monarchists and even federalists. The article crucially finds that there was a deliberate effort by government-aligned journalists to marginalise – rather than engage with – any dissenting views on European integration.

The Gathering Storm: Eduardo Frei's Revolution in Liberty and Chile's Cold War

The Gathering Storm: Eduardo Frei's Revolution in Liberty and Chile's Cold War

A Case of “New Soviet Internationalism”: Relations between the USSR and Chile's Christian Democratic Government, 1964–1970

After Iosif Stalin's death in 1953, the Soviet Union emerged from its isolation and began to show an interest in traditionally marginalized foreign societies. As the example of the Chilean-Soviet rapprochement under Eduardo Frei's administration (1964–1970) shows, Soviet leaders viewed state-to-state relations with “progressive” Latin American regimes as an appropriate means of undermining U.S. influence in the region without risking an armed confrontation with “imperialism.” The reformist project of the Chilean Christian Democratic government, which included a diplomatic opening to the Soviet bloc, provided a testing ground for the suitability of Moscow's new global approach. The surge of cultural and political exchanges indicate that the Soviet authorities were keenly interested in the Chilean experience. In addition, the considerable growth of travel and official missions beyond the Iron Curtain also demonstrates that Santiago wished to benefit by diversifying its international partners.

Desafiando la bipolaridad: la independencia diplomática del gobierno democratacristiano en Chile y su acercamiento con el “mundo socialista” (1964-1970)

***Desafiando a bipolaridade: A independência diplomática do governo Cristão Democrata e sua reaproximação com o “mundo socialista”***A última década testemunhou uma renovação historiográfica com o objetivo de enfatizar o papel dos países Latino Americanos durante a guerra fria. Seguindo esta tendência, este artigo argumenta que longe de ser um ator passivo, o governo Cristão Democrata de Eduardo Frei (1964-1970) conduziu uma política externa independente, desafiando a estrita lealdade aos interesses Americanos, construindo novas pontes com o campo socialista. Desde cedo, a administração de Frei, encorajada pelo Ministro de Relações Exteriores Gabriel Valdés, decidiu estabelecer relações diplomáticas com a URRS, e, imediatamente após isto, com outros cinco países do leste Europeu, iniciando conexões políticas, econômicas e culturais com o bloco soviético. Além disso, desde 1968, esta nova abordagem facilitou a aproximação comercial com a China de Mao, e a Revolução Cubana,com a qual Santiago assinou um acordo agrícola, encerrando a política de isolamento contra Cuba praticada pela OAS. A atitude da diplomacia chilena deu início à fortes controvérsias dentro do contexto Latino Americano e resultou no reconhecimento de Fidel Castro, que por sua vez havia atacado a “revolução em liberdade” de Eduardo Frei. Todos estes elementos contribuem para que possamos constatar que, em uma larga medida, a política externa de Salvador Allende, desde 1970, tem raízes na abertura internacional praticada anteriormente.

Nacionales y gremialistas: El “parto” de la nueva derecha política chilena, 1964 – 1973

Nacionales y gremialistas: El “parto” de la nueva derecha política chilena, 1964 – 1973

Good Wives and Unfaithful Men: Gender Negotiations and Sexual Conflicts in the Chilean Agrarian Reform, 1964 –1973

Good Wives and Unfaithful Men: Gender Negotiations and Sexual Conflicts in the Chilean Agrarian Reform, 1964 –1973

The Military Regime and Restructuring of Land Tenure

Following the restoration of the democratic regime in Chile in March 1990, academic efforts to evaluate the deep economic and social transformations experienced during the recent military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet have intensified. The focus of attention has centered on both the study of the political and social nature of the prior authoritarian regime and the analysis of the consequences of the neoliberal economic policies. Transformations in the agrarian sector, however, have received relatively little attention, even though it was precisely in this sector where the most radical transformations occurred. Any serious effort to evaluate the agrarian policy of the military regime cannot ignore the agrarian reform process of the previous regime-which was its antithesis. In fact, since the 1960s, the Chilean agrarian sector has been the object of profound transformations which have taken place within the framework of three different development strategies that in many ways have been radically antagonistic. The first of these strategies was encouraged by the Christian Democratic government of Eduardo Frei (1964-1970) through the implementation of Agrarian Reform in 1967. This sought the transformation of land tenure by means of the creation of a production system of a cooperative type (asentamiento), accompanied by incentives based on efficiency in an effort to propel a process of capitalist modernization.

Chile before and after Monetarism

When the Popular Unity government of Salvador Allende was overthrown in 1973, Chile was turned into a testing ground for monetarist economic theory. The tragic failure of that model, in political, social and economic terms, has recently prompted a chain reaction among the disciples of Milton Friedman, who have, in various degrees, denied responsibility, and expressed sympathy for the experiment's disappointing results. Although monetarism has become, in the last ten years, the order of the day in several Latin American countries, especially in Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina, as well as Chile, it is in Chile that it could be found in its purest form, and where the social and economic restructuring has been most complete. Yet this was not the first model of social engineering applied in Chile. In no other Latin American country have so many experiments taken place during the last forty years, each of them attracting widespread interest in the political establishments of the Third World, Europe, and the United States for different, but equally compelling, reasons. In 1938 Chile elected the first and only Popular Front government in Latin America, a phenomenon previously associated only with Spain and France. This alliance, between primarily working class Communists and Socialists and middle class Radicals, captivated the imagination of the elites of Latin America as a new political strategy to combat the problems of economic and political underdevelopment. In the United States, however, the Chilean Popular Front was seen as the first symptom ofthe malaise of'leftism', and therefore attacked and condemned from the very start. Later experiments would include the election of a populist-nationalist, anti-party President (Carlos Ibanez, 19521958), the first Christian Democratic government in Latin America (Eduardo Frei, 1964-1970), and the first self-professing Marxist head of state in the western hemisphere (Salvador Allende, 1970-1973). It is not surprising, therefore, that an examination of recent articles reveals interest in Chile to be high on the agenda of academics all over the world. Naturally enough, the character and actions of the military government headed by General Augusto Pinochet have merited and still merit the greatest attention, but other subjects have also proved attractive. Academics still continue to publish on both the Christian Democratic and the Popular Unity governments which preceded the military takeover in 1973. It would seem, in fact, that Chile became especially interesting as a subject of academic inquiry in 1964, when Eduardo Frei was elected as the first Christian Democratic president in Latin America, an interest that became almost a fascination during the Popular Unity years. And indeed, as the number of articles indicates, the attention of academics in Europe and the United States increased further after General

Women in Portugal

Prior to 1974, women in Portugal were restricted by the Penal Code and had little organizational power. Women's groups were formed within the Catholic Church to teach women about cooking, child care, and home economics. There was no contact with international women's groups. The press only reported events such as bra burning. 80% of all illiterates in Portugal are women. The conditions of Portuguese women are described after the revolution of April 25, 1974. Present roles are discussed for work, health, education, religion, trade unions and political parties, and women's organizations. The Women's Liberation Movement (WLM) appeared in May 1974 among a heterogenous group of women in Lisbon who were concerned about the oppression of women. WLM made feminist issues public amid ridicule and promoted the declaration of equal rights for women in the 1976 Republic Constitution and in the Family Code. Wage discrimination became illegal in 1979. Women represent 32.8% of the labor force. Unemployment is particularly high among women and is increasing. Women's wages and levels of skill are the lowest. The Christian Democratic government is actively engaged in a campaign to keep women at home and has formed the special Ministry of Family Affairs, which encourages large families and women's home activity in order to save jobs for men. There is a crisis in education: large class sizes and limited number of schools. Child care for the working mother is expensive when available and rarely available. An obstacle to women's rights has been the role of the Catholic Church, which fought equal rights legislation, condemned the Family Code and divorce laws, forbade the practice of contraception, and supported the movement against abortion. Only 1 member of government is a women, and she is considered a token. Trade unions have a women's section, but little attention is given to the problems of women. Women's groups within larger organizations have little autonomy. Those with autonomy are restricted and organized around specific causes, such as abortion. The liberation of women is evolving slowly.

Agrarian reform and structural change in Latin America: The Chilean case

Summary Agrarian reform has been a central political issue in Chile during the last decade although less than 30 per cent of the country's population is agricultural. The Christian Democratic government elected in 1964 in tiated a land reform over rightist opposition with the pirmary objective of eliminating the traditional latifundia and granting land to some 100,000 peasant families. Only one‐fourth of this goal had been met in 1970 when a coalition of socialists, communists and other leftist parties elected socialist Salvador Allende president. The new government's programme promises a ‘transition to socialism’ including a far more profound and sweeping agrarian reform than the one begun by the previous administration. Realization of such an agrarian reform poses difficult political, social and economic problems. In this article we attempt to define the major issues and to analyse policy alternatives facing the new government.

Chile: The Difficulties of Democratic Reform

the same time fosters reformist aspirations and impedes the fulfilment of those aspirations. This social structure is underpinned by an economic system geared to maintaining the status quo; and an important element of this status quo is dependence on foreign powers and external forces outside national control. This contradiction between the demands that are made upon the political system and the response that that system is designed to produce gives rise to a style of politics which is erratic, restless, and not infrequently demagogic. A similar sequence of events appears in the development of every political experiment since 1938 and there has been a variety of experiments ranging from the Popular Front of that year, through the restoration of a former military populist president (Ibanez in 1952), the return of the Alessandri dynasty in 1958, to the Christian Democratic triumph of 1964. The first stage of the sequence is great enthusiasm; the second is the attempt to fulfil the electoral promises; the third stage is the greater or lesser failure of that attempt; the fourth is the breakup of the electoral coalition; and the final stage is the rejection at the next election of that coalition if it is intact and able to contest the election. Of course, the present Christian Democratic government has not completed this sequence, nor need it necessarily do so. But the sharp divisions in the party are growing sharper; and its share of the vote has dropped from the high of 42 per cent in 1965 to 31 per cent in the elections of March of this year. Any successful reform programme in Chile has a formidable

Paternalism and Populism: Catholicism in Latin America

The Catholic church in Latin America sometimes attempts to speak with one voice. When it does so, as after the meeting of the Latin American Bishops' Conference (CELAM) in October 1966, it squeaks rather than roars: the diversity of views on the area's socio-economic or political problems prevents the bishops from being heard 'loud and clear'. This paper will attempt to document that diversity, not by an exhaustive survey of the different positions but by an examination of those cases which effectively mark the limits on the conservative and radical sides. It therefore begins by discussing certain aspects of Catholicism in Colombia, which boasts the most devout and traditional Catholic population and the most conservative and paternalistic church. It then analyses the situation in Chile, the only country with a Christian-Democratic government in power, one pledged to a 'Revolution in Liberty'. The strain which has arisen there between populist pretensions and a reality which has important paternalistic elements will be examined in some detail.1 This leads to a consideration of the 'revolutionary' Christian groups in Latin America, and a final discussion of their chances of success.