The electoral collapse of the Chilean Christian democracy, 1989-2021
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18504/pl3162-008-2023Keywords:
Christian democracy, political parties, elections, Catholic, factions, militants, public opinion polls, ChileAbstract
We explain the electoral deterioration of the Chilean Christian Democratic Party (pdc, by its acronym in Spanish), which fell from 26% of the votes in the inaugural elections of democracy in 1989, to 4.2% in the legislative elections of 2021. We suggest three explanatory factors. First, the pdc’s electoral base has always been predominantly Catholic; since the mid-2000s, right-wing parties have competed with the pdc in this core constituency partially successfully. Second, the pdc has been a centrist party, but since the late 1990s, it has faced competition from left-wing parties for these voters. Third, the internal factions of the pdc went from a cooperative dynamic to a disruptive dynamic, with accelerated changes of leadership and militant flight. All these anticipated poor results for the 2017 and 2021 presidential elections, with 5.9% and 11.6%, respectively.
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