Chile's Embattled Democracy

Report Outline
Marxist Victory in Presidential Race
Chile: Land of Variety and Contrasts
Political Outlook for Chile in 1970s

Marxist Victory in Presidential Race

Latin Trend Reflected in Chile's Leftward Turn

When more than one-third of the voters of Chile cast their ballots for a Communist-Socialist coalition candidate for President on Sept. 4, they startled a world unaccustomed to the spectacle of a Marxist bidding for power in a free and fair election. The Marxist, Salvador Allende, finished first in a three-man presidential race at the head of a loose grouping of Socialists, Communists, Radicals, and splinter factions. The way was thus opened for him to become, on Nov. 1, the first Marxist voted in as head of a Free World nation. Many things could prevent him from taking office, or from serving a full six-year term. The first obstacle lay in the Chilean Congress, due to meet Oct. 24 in joint session to choose between the two leading candidates, Allende and rightist Jorge Alessandri. However, on Oct. 19 Alessandri withdrew and thus assured that Allende would be offered the presidency.

Whether or not Allende dons the presidential sash and keeps it for any significant length of lime, the election marks a major development in Chilean and inter-American affairs. First of all. it was noted that more than 60 per cent of the votes were cast for the two leftist candidates, Radomiro Tomic of the ruling Christian Democratic Party and Allende. A former American ambassador to Chile observed that “a majority of the Chilean people, quite predictably, have indicated their desire for a government of the left and apparently at least a third of the electorate is not concerned with a Marxist label.”

Chilean voters were following a hemisphere-wide trend toward radical solutions for mounting economic and social problems, and toward increasing nationalism in political and economic affairs. The vote also confirmed the rapid leftward movement of Chile's masses, both urban and rural, employed and unemployed, since the end of World War II. Analysts expect a re-alignment of all Chilean political parties as a consequence of the election. They foresee some old-line parties of both the right and left disappearing in the next few years, and new groups, based on a more realistic appraisal of the country's political mood, emerging. The traditional, conservative right has all but withered away in Chile. Future battle lines are more likely to be drawn between the Marxist and non-Marxist left than between liberal and conservative.