The Allende victory: an analysis of the 1970 Chilean presidential election

76 Pages·1973·3.384 MB·English

by  Michael J. Francis

THE ALLENDE VICTORY:
AN ANALYSIS OF THE 1970 CHILEAN
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
MICHAEL J. FRANCIS
THE INSTITUTE OF GOVERNMENT RESEARCH
Comparative Government Studies
Number 4
THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA PRESS
Tucson, Arizona
THE INSTITUTE OF GOVERNMENT RESEARCH
College of Liberal Arts
The University of Arizona
Clifton E. Wilson
Director
S. Dean Schooler
Associate Director
The views expressed in this pubheation are those of the author and are not an expression
of views of the Institute of Government Research or of the University of Arizona.
THt UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA PRESS
Copyright © L973
The Arizona Board of Regents
All Rights Reserved
Manufactured in the U.S.A.
I.S.B.N. No. 0-8165-0411-3
Library of Congress No. 73-78726
FOREWORD
The 1970 presidential election in Chile was one of the most important
political events in recent Latin-American history. Its implications transcend
the understanding of the political process in one country. The victory of a
pro-Marxist candidate probably has a lasting and significant meaning for
Latin-American politics in general.
Professor Michael J. Francis observed and interviewed for an eight-month
period in Chile during the 1970 campaign and election. He also spent time in
Chile in 1966 and 1968 and another year studying in Mexico. He combined
his expertise as a Latin-American scholar with on-the-scene analysis in
preparing this research effort. What emerges is a monograph which provides
valuable insights not only into the election itself, but into the political
climate of the country, the interaction of diverse groups and the strengths
and weaknesses of the candidates and their strategies.
A background section on, the pre-Allende years precedes an extensive
probing of the major candidates, the campaign and the'election. The
traditional concluding chapter has been replaced by a discussion of various
interpretations of the elections. As a result, the reader is able to compare
Professor Francis’ views and conclusions with those of leading Latin-
American journalists and academicians.
Michael J. Francis is at the University of Notre Dame where he serves as
an Associate Professor of Government and International Studies, Assistant
Director of the Latin-American Program, and Director for 1972-73 of the
Sophomore Year in Mexico Program. He also has taught at Texas A&M
University and at California State College in Fullerton. He received his B.A.
from Fort Hayes (Kansas) State College in 1960 and his Ph.D. in foreign
affairs from the University of Virginia in 1963.
Professor Francis is the author of Le Victoria de Allende published in
1972 by Francisco de Aguirre in Buenos Aires. The book, in Spanish, differs
from this monograph in that it is nearly twice as long and is designed
primarily as a work in political journalism rather than serious analysis. In
addition, his Las Tensiones de Panamericanismo will be issued by the same
publisher in 1973. It is a discussion of United States relations with Chile and
Argentina during World War II.
Clifton E. Wilson
Director
£

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The most important element in the writing of this monograph is that the
University of Notre Dame, primarily through the efforts of Professor George
Brinkley, chairman of the Department of Government and International
Studies, and Professor Stephen Kertesz, chairman of the Committee on
International Relations, provided me the necessary financial support to spend
almost eight months in Chile during the presidential campaign and its
immediate aftermath. In Chile, Mario Zañartu, S.J., and Fernando Molina,
formerly vice rector of the Catholic University of Santiago, were extraor­
dinarily generous and helpful as was the entire staff of the Department of
Political Science of the Catholic University. Luis Scherz Garcia, Thomas
Trebat, Marta Zanelli, Anthony O’Brien, Walter Sánchez González, Robert
McCaa, Paul Sigmund, Warrie Lynn Smith and Frederick Pike also deserve my
thanks.
For his continual- testing of my ideas, I owe a tremendous debt to my
good friend Hernán Vera Godoy. Because he was doing his own research
during the writing of this monograph, it was unfortunately impossible for him
to be a co-author. My general debt to Professor John J. Kennedy under whom
I wrote my dissertation at the University of Virginia and who brought me to
Notre Dame is impossible to repay.
Particularly in the case of Professor Vera it is necessary to comment that
the conclusions of this study are my own and not the responsibility of any of
the above-mentioned persons.
The fact that my wife and children enjoyed Chile so much and were
quickly acculturated made my research much easier.

CONTENTS
Introduction 9
The Frei Administration 11
The Candidates 30
Radomiro Tomic Romero 30
Jorge Alessandri Rodríguez 33
Salvador Allende Gossens 38
The Campaign 46
The Chilean Military 47
Constitutionalism vs. Tradition vs. Politics 49
Polls: Information and Propaganda 50
Violence and Politics 53
Campaigning 55
The Results 63
The Commentaries 68

INTRODUCTION
The victory of a pro-Marxist candidate in Chile’s 1970 presidential
election produced a heightened interest in Chile’s future on the part of both
specialists in Latin America and the popular media. At this point it is
difficult to know whether the triumph of Salvador Allende will be only a
minor ripple in the waters of Latin-American politics or whether the Chilean
situation, despite its seeming unique nature, heralds a new set of alternatives
for Latin America. But it is important to understand how Allende could have
won an election that was a model of decorum in a country with an excellent
record of adhering to the standards of formal democracy.
Besides attempting to describe the factors leading up to an event of
widespread importance, this monograph, it is hoped, will make a modest
contribution to the study of Chilean politics. It is intended both to give a
sense of the texture of Chilean political life and to discuss events which might
otherwise be overlooked. My opinion is that at this stage in the development
of our knowledge of Chilean politics, we need micro case studies.1 This type
of study is necessary not only in order to provide the basis for a more general
analysis, but also because research of very narrow topics helps to eliminate
the North American biases which frequently dominate the impressionistic
observer or theory-builder. Since the Project Camelot debacle, deep research
into narrow topics involving extensive interviewing has become very difficult
in Chile, although it was ticklish even prior to that time as is amply
shown in Bonilla and Glazer’s “A Note of Methodology: Field Work in a
Hostile Environment: A Chapter in the Sociology of Social Research in
Chile.”2 In part it was fear of these difficulties which led to the descriptive
approach displayed in this monograph.
1. I refer to such models as Robert Kaufman, The Chilean Political Right and Agrarian
Reform (Washington: 1967) and Henry A. Landsberger, “Chile: A Vineyard Workers’
Strike - A Case Study of the Relationship between Church, Intellectuals, and Peasants,”
in Latin American Peasant Movements ed. by Landsberger (Ithaca, N.Y.: 1969),
pp. 210-273.
2. Frank Bonilla and Myron Glazer, “A Note of Methodology: Field Work in a Hostile
Environment: A Chapter in the Sociology of Social Research in Chile,” in Student
Politics in Chile ed. by Frank Bonilla and Myron Glazer (New York: 1970), pp. 313-333.
a
9
10 Introduction
Although electoral campaigns are interesting and important phenomena,
the lack of a conceptual framework for their study makes it difficult to avoid
being descriptive. However, “only through investigation of political campaign­
ing in diverse politico-cultural settings will it be possible to broaden our
knowledge of parties, elections and public opinion,” to quote the conclusion
of a recent article complaining of the lack of commonly agreed upon
concepts in the study of campaigning.3
This monograph begins with a chapter on the Eduardo Frei adminis­
tration (1964-1970) which preceded the Allende administration and which
represented the hopes of democratic reformism. The three major candidates
and their official platforms are examined next, followed by a description of
the campaign and a brief overview of the results. In the final section, rather
than simply rehashing my own conclusions, I have chosen to discuss various
interpretations of the election which have been published by a wide range of
academic and popular authors. Hopefully this unorthodox procedure con­
trasts my views against other interpretations, with mine having the last word.
3. John Martz, “Democratic Political Campaigning in Latin America: A Typological
Approach to Cross-Cultural Research,” Journal of Politics, 33 (May, 1971), p. 398. This
monograph attempts to utilize Martz’s suggestions although some aspects, such as
describing the electoral system, are ignored because they have been discussed in detail
elsewhere, i.e., Chile: Election Factbook September 4, 1964 (Washington: 1963) and
Charles Parrish, Arpad J. von Lazar, and Jorge I. Tapia-Videla, “Electoral Procedures and
Political Parties in Chile,” Studies in Comparative International Development, 6, (1971).