Por Camila Vergara
The appearance of Michelle Bachelet as a dominant political actor could be analyzed as a product of the increasing crisis of representation in the Chilean political system, which sinks its root in class, gender, and generational cleavages, and that has emerged hand in hand with demands for a more participatory democracy. As a more radical Socialist, Bachelet represented a critical vision of the model by sponsoring redistributive policies such as expanding welfare and increasing state intervention. Currently, 36 percent of the active population works in the informal economy, thus without rights to social security or protection from the state as workers. (OIT Report, 2007) Trying to address these demands, Bachelet promised to establish a national minimum monthly pension and to create a state pension administration agency that would offer lower fees to workers.
In addition to social justice, as a woman, Bachelet meant the beginning of the end of women’s discrimination. The Concertación was in debt to women’s movements, which were fundamental in the registration of women voters for the plebiscite that brought Chile back to democracy. However, pro-choice and anti-discrimination policies came slow and were insufficient. In addition to women’s under-representation in the political system, they were discriminated against in the labor market. For instance, while women's average salary has been in average only one third of men's average salary, women have to pay three times more than men of equal age and condition for the same private health care plan. (Valdes, 2002: 11) Therefore, women have in a way been destined to be poorer than men.
It is not a surprise then that, even though the majority of women had historically given their vote to the Center and the Right, this time women voted based more on gender than political attachments. Consequently, Bachelet increased her female vote in almost 5 percent compared to Lagos in 1999. Equally significant is that from the percentage of people that decided to register for this election, women outnumbered men more than 3 to 1.
As a newcomer to politics, she represented a new style, a more direct and close way of government, a new stage in which the 1973 coup was not central. In other words, Bachelet represented a symbolic turning of page. Her father, a high-ranked army general, died after being tortured by Pinochet’s supporters. She and her mother were also tortured and then sent to exile. However, she embraced the idea of reconciliation and focus on returning the people’s trust in the armed forces. Consequently, Bachelet represents the demise of the Yes/No cleavage and the need to incorporate a new generation that is not defined in relation to the dictatorship as much as to market society, to a more heterogeneous community with participatory demands.
Even though she was not in the strict sense an outsider, she represented a break from politics and economics as usual. She campaigned on a platform detached from traditional politicians and promised new faces and gender parity in her administration. In addition, she is extremely charismatic. Bachelet has been the only candidate in history to be literally selected by opinion polls. People saw her as someone close, empathic, someone who was smart, spontaneous, and warm, a middle-class single working mother who was aware of social challenges and could therefore put them at the center of national discussion.
While Michele Bachelet’s victory in 2005 represents the ability of the Concertación to adapt to new political challenges, it also evidences an increasing preference of charisma and resemblance over ideology. Could Bachelet be considered part of a populist moment? I believe the answer is yes. In addition to her not being part of traditional politics, she has an inclusionary discourse of gender parity and participatory democracy, and represents formerly disenfranchised groups such as women and people from the lower classes. The direct relation established between Bachelet and ‘the people’ is evidenced in her high personal approval ratings, despite the decreasing support for her government.
Even though these elements are part of a populist profile, her government has not been populist regarding policies. She campaigned on a populist platform aimed to enfranchise the disenfranchised and was elected in great part because of her personal charisma. However, during her first year in power, Bachelet emerged as a weak leader, which forced her to regress and incorporate old faces and more men to her government. Therefore, I would argue that she is part of a populist moment that lost its momentum when it succumbed to the rules of the political system.
Projections suggest that for the presidential election of 2009, because of non-registration, abstention or void ballots, more than 40 per cent of the population old enough to vote will self-marginalize from the elections (Navia, 2007). This means that whoever becomes president next year will do so with the support of only 30 percent of the national vote, which could be read as a sign of political crisis that brings back memories of the breakage of the social contract and democratic stability.
I believe Chile is experimenting a severe crisis of representation involving historically excluded sectors, such as the lower classes and women, and other groups such as the young generations who feel traditional elites are incompetent and out of fashion. Even though it would be difficult to know what is the real political configuration of Chilean society, taking in account the current institutional framework, what is clear is that the dictatorship/democracy cleavage is fading and that new cleavages based upon youth, gender, and class have been highlighted. It seems to me that if the political parties do not engineer a new institutional framework that would make them more responsive to their constituency, democracy will become endangered.
References
Navia, Patricio. 2007 “¿Quién quiere sufragio universal?” Revista Capital, #211, August
24.
Valdés, Teresa. 2002. El Índice de Compromiso Cumplido—ICC: Una estrategia
para el control ciudadano de la equidad de género, Santiago: FLACSO-Chile.
