Changes in Chile’s Political Landscape

On December 19， 2021， Chile’s presidential election ended the suspense when Gabriel Boric， the candidate of the left-wing coalition Approve Dignity （AprueboDignidad）， surprisingly won the second round of voting with a 55.87% of the vote， being elected the 34th president of Chile. The election was unusual in that it reflected two major changes in Chile’s political ecology. The first is that for the first time since 1990， the two mainstream political party coalitions， center-left and center-right， failed to enter the final round for the presidential election. The second is that the traditional elites with strong political credentials have lost in the election， while Boric， a 35-year-old representative of the “millennial generation”， has unexpectedly emerged as the winner. This is a sign that the younger generation is beginning to shape the landscape of Chile’s political parties and the direction of its policies， and also marks a new stage in the revival of left-wing progressive forces in Chile’s domestic political ecology.

POLITICAL PARTY COALITIONS AND THE EVOLVING LANDSCAPE OF POLITICAL PARTY IN CHILE

Political party coalitions are the hallmark of Chile’s multi-party political system， which features a fragmented multi-party competition. Two or more parties with similar ideologies or political ideals forming coalitions has been a long-standing phenomenon in Chilean political practice. Since the beginning of the democratization in 1990， the landscape of Chilean political party has seen the division of dominance by a center-left coalition led by the Socialist Party （PartidoSocialista）， the Party for Democracy （Partidopor la Democracia）， the Radical Party （Partido Radical Social Demócrata）， and the Christian Democratic Party （Partido Demócrata Cristiano）， and a center-right coalition led by the National Renovation （Renovación Nacional） and the Independent Democratic Alliance （Unión DemócrataIndependiente）. Over the past 30 years， the two coalitions have undergone a certain degree of internal differentiation and evolution， but in general， the institutionalization of political party coalitions and the political stability of  Chile have been maintained.

From the perspective of the political system， the development and evolution of political party coalitions in Chile is closely related to the presidential and parliamentary election systems. For one thing， the “majority-runoff two-round system” of presidential elections in Chile has boosted the development of party coalitions. For great majority of political parties， it is difficult to get more than 50% of the votes in the first round by “fighting alone”. However， a coalition of political parties can concentrate the votes of allied parties to a single candidate and largely increases the probability of winning for each party within the coalition.

For another， the “binomial system” in Chile’s parliamentary elections lays the basis for the long-standing political monopoly by the two major parties coalitions. After Pinochet， the president of the military government failed to bid for re-election in 1988， electoral rules that favored the distribution of seats among the conservative right-wing forces were made， i.e.， each constituency can only produce two representatives and two senators. A party must receive more than two-thirds of the votes in order to win both seats in a constituency. As long as a party leading in the campaign receives less than two-thirds of the votes， it can only win one seat. The other seat will be distributed to the candidate nominated by the party that receives the second highest number of votes， provided that the candidate’s support rate is not less than 33%. This electoral system favors the party in second place， which is usually a conservative center-right party. At the same time， the system guarantees both of the major party coalitions win at least one seat in each constituency， which is an incentive for the formation and stability of party coalitions.

The reform of the parliamentary electoral system in 2015 became the main force driving the evolution of the political party landscape in Chile： the political monopoly by the two major party coalitions was undermined and the emerging parties began to rise. In 2015， the Bachelet government enacted a new electoral law that abolished the binomial system in parliamentary election， replaced it with proportional representation system and quota system， redistricted constituencies and created more parliamentary seats， which means opportunities for emerging parties to participate in politics. Since then， new political parties outside the two traditional party coalitions have gradually stepped to the center of Chile’s political arena.

In early 2017， the Broad Front （FrenteAmplio）， an emerging coalition of 14 left-wing parties rose to become the third force in Chile’s politics and later formed a cooperative alliance with the Communist Party of Chile （PartidoComunista）. After the defeat of the center-left coalition in 2017， the Communist Party of Chile chose to withdraw from the center-left coalition in consultation with the center-left parties and formed the “Unidospor el Cambio” （United for the Change） coalition with other left-wing parties in 2019. In 2020， Unidospor el Cambio was renamed “Chile Digno” （Worthy Chile） and formed the Approve Dignity coalition with the Broad Front as an emerging left-wing coalition for the elections. The victory of the left-wing coalition in this election broke the pattern of center-left and center-right political forces taking turns to rule since the military returned Chile’s government to the civilian in 1990. A situation of tripartite competition among left-wing， center-left， and center-right forces has formed. Chile’s party politics has entered a new period of adjustment.