Partidos, élite y democracia en Chile

Abstract

This article outlines an interpretative model of the Chilean political processwhich, in recent decades, has gone from democracy to dictatorship and back to democracy. The central idea in this study is the political party system, which constitutes one of the most outstanding features of the Chilean political system and, within that system, the evolution of the "guild" of professional politicians, the elite, which simultaneously constitutes and element of continuity and change.