El Conflicto democracia/autoritarismo y sus bases sociales en Chile, 1973-1995

Un ejemplo de redefinición política de un cleavage

Abstract

This article studies the social «cleavages» and influences of political legacies on the Chilean
party system during the post-dictatorship period. Unlike the approaches that centre on sociological
argumentations for explaining the formation of party systems, here it is argued that the appearance
of cleavages in a party system is the result of political agency, which can come to (re)define
identities and social conflicts. The Chilean case illustrates this point since the structure of the
present party system is noticeably influeced by certain political legacies of the authoritarian period.
The «cleavage» between those who support the former authoritarian régime and those who oppose
it has contributed in a significant way to the formation of the party system during the democratic
period.