Stephanie Delgado Martin

Democratisation in Chile 1989-2009: an Assessment of the Return to Democracy Stephanie Delgado Martin

Looking at the recent democratisation wave in North Africa, democratisation has regained actuality ? not that it ever ceased to do so, but it has definitely re-entered the public discussion in civil society, after having retreated to predominantly scholarly discussions in the last decade after the breakdown of the Soviet Union. Much can be learned with the case of the Chilean democratisation, but a critical assessment of the successes and shortcomings so far remains imperative. Furthermore, comparing past and recent cases of democratisation, it becomes clear that despite some similarities, each case is different, and different contexts can create different outcomes out of similar situations. This book analyses the democratisation process in Chile until 2009. The first, theoretical part gives an overview of different democracy concepts and discusses various democratisation theories. The second part gives a historical oversight of the developments from the 1960s until the beginning of the democratisation. In the final part the author conducts an assessment of the democratisation process and of the status quo of democracy in Chile by 2009.