The avoiding and never implemented regional democratization in Chile

Authors

  • Esteban Valenzuela Van Treek

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35305/cc.vi125.57

Keywords:

Chile, decentralization, gradualism, cooptation, presidentialism

Abstract

The present article seeks to explain why Chile has been so reticent to the democratic election with levels of autonomy of the intermediate level of government called regional government, today in charge of an intendente delegate of the Central Government although from the 2014 with an elected regional council. Chile is the only case in the great democracies of Latin America, in opossition a traditional democratic power whithin traditional federal countries (Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela), Colombia from 1992 and since 2000 have joined to choose the macro territorial executive Peru, Paraguay , Ecuador and Bolivia. The reason is the naturalization of the "presicratic" model of presidentialism with centralism dating back to 1830. Finally, the paper explains the rise of regionalist protests and the projects emanating from the Presidential Commission for Decentralization that Bachelet created in 2014, generating an incremental dual model that is debated in Congress. Chile lives a tension between the conservative right allied with the centralist left that resist a change of political system against the left center that seeks to deepen democracy allied to Christian Democracy and liberal segments.

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Author Biography

Esteban Valenzuela Van Treek

Dr. en Historia (Valencia), Máster en Ciencia Política (UC) y en Desarrollo (UW-Madison). Fue alcalde
y diputado por Rancagua. Asesor GIZ en desarrollo territorial para América Latina. Presidió Comisión de
Estado para la Descentralización (2014). Director del Magíster en Estudios Sociales y Políticos de
América Latina de la Universidad Alberto Hurtado. Este trabajo es parte de del proyecto de investigación Movimientos Regionalistas y Ciclo de reformas FONDECYT 1150 684. Tributario de opiniones en El Mostrador, conferencia en el Simposio Chileno-Argentino en el Congreso de la Democracia en Rosario (2016), del texto introductorio del libro “Descentralización Ya”(2015) y del artículo sobre el “El modelo
chileno de descentralización dual incremental” publicado por la revista RIEM( Revista Iberoamericana de Estudios Municipales). 

Published

2020-06-01

How to Cite

Valenzuela Van Treek, E. . (2020). The avoiding and never implemented regional democratization in Chile. CUPEA Cuadernos De Política Exterior Argentina, (125), 71–82. https://doi.org/10.35305/cc.vi125.57

Issue

Section

Artículos de investigación (sometidos a referato doble ciego)