Chile is located in southern South America, bordering the South Pacific Ocean, between Argentina and Peru. It spans 756,950 square kilometers. The estimated 2014 population numbered approximately 17.4 million, 88.9 percent of which is white or non-indigenous, with the remaining 11.1 percent from the Mapuche and other indigenous groups. The country is divided into fifteen regions, with the city of Santiago as its capital. 89 percent of the population resides in urban areas.

Chile's market-oriented economy, with its relatively well-diversified and well-regulated financial system, is generally regarded as a model for other Latin American countries. According to the World Bank, Chile's economy has been the fastest growing in Latin America during the past fifteen years. The 1990s, however, was a difficult period as Chile experience a backdrop of global financial crisis and negative investor sentiment about emerging markets. In 1999, severe drought and Chile's over-dependence on commodity exports such as copper, among other factors, pushed the country into recession. Chile has since recovered, with a real GDP growth averaging 5.0 percent between the years 2003 and 2007, and its GDP per capita in 2007 was US$14,300. The Economist credits this growth to the stable macroeconomic policies that have been put in place over the past two decades and in particular the counter-cyclical fiscal policy developed by Ricardo Lagos's government (2000-06). However, some argue that Chile's economic policies are overly cautious and the government should do more to encourage growth.

The Portales Constitution

The 1925 Constitution

Military Rule and the 1980 Constitution

Beginning in 1987, the Chilean political opposition accepted that the Pinochet regime could not be overthrown by popular revolt or guerilla warfare, but had to be challenged from within the constitutional system that the military government had itself created. A group of opposition parties formed the Concertación por el No coalition (the “Concertación”) to campaign for a “no” vote in the upcoming 1988 plebiscite. The Concertación’s efforts at voter registration, publicizing its cause and voting oversight resulted in Pinochet’s defeat on October 5 by a 55% vote. Under the constitution, this meant that presidential and parliamentary elections would be held in December 1989.

In the period between the plebiscite and the presidential elections, three-way negotiations over constitutional reform were held between the military government, moderate right-wing parties that supported the government, and the center-left opposition. There was no public discussion or participation. The agreed-upon reforms, which were approved in a July 30, 1989 plebiscite, reflected compromises made by the opposition rather than any far-reaching constitutional change: article 80 was eliminated; the number of elected senators was increased; the constitutional amendment mechanism was modified; the President’s ability to dissolve the lower house of Congress was removed and his power to declare a state of exception was reduced; a new civilian member was added to the National Security Council. The military succeeded in including a provision that laws that dealt with the armed forces would be governed by an organic constitutional law, increasing the difficulty of amending such laws. Political sociologists have argued that the effect of these reforms, which accepted the foundations of the 1980 constitution and were achieved through bargaining, was to make Chile’s transition a transición pactada (transition by agreement) and not a transición por ruptura (transition that broke with the previous order).

Governments since the 1989 reforms have been engaged in reforming Chile’s constitution. Important changes have included: allowing for the direct election of municipal councilors; Supreme Court and criminal justice reform, and the enshrining of gender equality. The 2005 amendments are considered to be the greatest steps toward democracy in Chile, reducing the presidential term from 6 to 4 years, reducing military influence in politics—by transforming the National Security Council into an advisory body to the President, eliminating appointed senatorial seats, and giving the President the power to dismiss the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces and the national police—and removing the current electoral system from the constitution in order to open the process to future reform.

In 2013, Michelle Bachelet, of the socialist party, was elected to a second presidential term—the first being from 2006 to 2010, as the Constitution prohibits consecutive terms. Her campaign promised to replace the Constitution created during Pinochet’s dictatorship, arguing that Chile needs “a constitution born in democracy [as the current one] is illegitimate.” Her major focuses are education, tax reform, and addressing the country’s inequality. Opposition politicians raised concerns that changing the Constitution would create uncertainty, which could have a negative impact on foreign investment and the economy as a whole. Also, because of the large Catholic population in the country (66.7%), Bachelet is expected face resistance on reproductive rights reforms.

Less than a fortnight after Bachelet took office, over 100,000 Chileans from more than 40 civil organizations participated in The Protest of All Protests, calling for the Constitutional changes that had been promised during the campaign. Protesters claimed that the march was not in opposition to the President but rather to inform the politicians that the people have demands. Those demands include self-determination for the indigenous people, egalitarian marriage with child adoption, and healthcare.

Executive

Legislative

Judicial

BBC News. Chile’s Michelle Bachelet Faces First Protest. Web. 23 March 2014. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-26703699.

Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook: Chile, available at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ci.html.

Chile: Democratic at Last. The Economist. Web 15 Sept. 2005. http://www.economist.com/node/4409107.

Collyns, Dan, Bachelet Pledges Radical Constitutional Reforms After Winning Chilean Election, The Guardian. 2013. Web. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/16/chile-president-elect-michelle-bachelet-election-reforms.

Hudson, Rex A. (ed.), Chile: A Country Study (Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1994), available at http://countrystudies.us/chile.

Montes, J. Esteban & Tomás Vial, The Role of Constitution-Building Processes in Democratization—Case Study: Chile, Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, available at http://www.idea.int/conflict/cbp*

Cristi, Renato, Constitutionalism and the Founding of Constitutions: The Metaphysics of Constituent Power: Schmitt and the Genesis of Chile’s 1980 Constitution, 21 Cardozo L. Rev. 1749, 1766 (2000).*

Sacaan, Soraya. The ‘Protest of All Protests’ Calls for Constitutional Reform in Chile. Web. 25 March 2014. http://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/03/25/the-protest-of-all-protests-calls-for-constitutional-reform-in-chile/.

Writing the next chapter in a Latin American success story, The Economist, March 31, 2005.