PATTERNS OF REPRESENTATION AND COMPETITION - PARTIES AND DEMOCRACY INPOST-PINOCHET CHILE

Taking the military government led by General Augusto Pinochet (1973-9 0) as the immediate background for an understanding of political parti es in Chile's current politics, this article pursues three related goa ls. First, it identifies the most important elements of continuity and change between the pre- and post-Pinochet periods, drawing attention to positive elements, such as the tripartite division of the party sys tem, the institutionalized nature of parties, and the reduction of ide ological polarization, but also to negative elements, such as the incr eased distance between parties and societal interests, the weakness of social actors, the unelected nature of a significant number of senato rs and the skewed electoral law. Second, it explains why certain eleme nts of Chile's parties and party system have changed while others have not. Third, it spells out the significance of these elements of conti nuity and change in terms of their impact on the extent to which parti es are representative of societal interests and the nature of competit ion that characterizes the party system.