Latin American perspectives The middle class
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Latin American perspectives a program of comment and analysis about current
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Latin American problems and their historical setting. The commentator for these
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programs is Dr. C. Harvey Gardner research professor of history at Southern Illinois
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University.
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Here now is Dr. Gardner someone I suspect an individual
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related to that indefinite day of whom we hear so much once
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quipped the difference between US politics and Latin American
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politics is that here a man talks his way into office while
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they're in Latin America. He shoots his way in.
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Like all generalizations this is glib but dangerous.
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I would today like to refer to a volume recently published by Houghton Mifflin of
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Boston in titled The political system of Chile
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authored by that I recall. He'll spelled g i l of the
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University of North Carolina. This volume dealing
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with chili of course concerns the string bean like republic
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on the southwest side of South America with its area of
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approximately 200 90000 square miles and a population
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approximating eight and a half million people. A country in which
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today those who are above the age of 15 are judged. Eighty four percent
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literate. A country in which the population is thought to be 80
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percent Roman Catholic. That nation at present knows the
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presidency of Eduardo for a e who took office in
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1964 another election to come up at the end of his six year term
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in one thousand seventy. I speak about one of the most sophisticated of
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all the areas of Latin America politically and so even as one derides
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one generalization no other generalization is to be derived from these
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comments.
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Chile is the only Latin American country where political forces are clearly and distinctly
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aligned as in many European countries into three great blocs.
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The right center and the left. The resemblance of the
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Chilian party system to that of much of Europe and particular to the system which existed in
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France during the third and fourth republics is striking and has been noted
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by many observers students of comparative politics who are familiar with both
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countries are prone to compare Chiles radical party
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at the Capitol are a formal party and the French radicals of the Third Republic.
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To conclude that both are similar and both of played an almost identical role
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in their respective systems as the middle of the road bureaucratic party
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representative of middle class interests. It is equally tempting to
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compare the working alliance of communists and socialists in Chile with the present cooperative
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arrangement between their counterparts in Italy or to attempt to determine
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to what extent the Chilean Christian Democrats have been influenced by
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the Christian socialist movement of Germany and Italy. Chilean
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politics are undoubtedly more nearly European
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than is the case elsewhere in Latin America. But there are features that
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are uniquely the typically Chilean ideologically speaking.
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The Chilean political scene is overbalanced toward the left. The
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Conservatives capital C and the liberals a capital L both being formal
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parties have long accepted existing liberal democratic institutions
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and therefore cannot be called extreme rightist parties in the same
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sense as European Marcus and factious. The
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right and the left are almost equal in the number of votes received in
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Chile with each getting a little over a quarter of the total with the center
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receiving almost half Chile is also
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often cited as the best example of the multi-party system which is
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common in various forms throughout all Latin America.
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It comes close to having parties representing the entire range of political tendencies.
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In the period of approximately 100 years during which the multi-party system has functioned in
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Chile the number of parties in existence has varied widely
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reaching a maximum of thirty six. In the Depression years of the
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1930s However for more than the 30 years since then the major
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parties have been six in number. Almost all of which reach back more than a
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half century in their political history.
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Speaking out from Moment of the right and those parties principally related to it the
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right in Chile is composed of the United Conservative Party and that is a
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formal title and the Liberal Party. These two either
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officially are an officially allied have for the last 30 years
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established national policy or at least wielded a generally effective veto power
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over it. In 1061 the radical party
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capital are remember joining the administration coalition and in 60
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to the three of them in a coalition on the so-called Democratic Front
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which in turn fell apart in 1964.
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Speaking out of a conservative party the oldest and the first ruling party
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of Chile a party that has traditionally been related to the
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wealthy landed aristocracy. The foreword of that
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conservative party platform adopted as recently as one thousand sixty one
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declared that the party's fundamental doctrine conforms to the
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teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. Traditionally
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the core of that party I repeat has been of high status groups the socially
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notable represented primarily by large land holders and
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the aristocracy derived from land holding interests.
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The Liberal Party also a portion of that right. Indeed the
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other principal wing had its origins in the 1840s in the
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opposition of a commercially oriented segment of the upper class of
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Chile. That is an opposition to the authoritarian and
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ecclesiastical bias of the Conservative Party.
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But in due time the commercial interests of the town and the conservative
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interests of the rural regions so harmonize themselves that arriving at a consensus
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that both commercial and agricultural interests could be safeguarded together without damage
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one to the other.
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The liberals and conservatives today are solidly united
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the core of the membership of the Liberal Party comes from groups which are belonging to the
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upper straight I'm of Chilean society do not predominantly depend
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upon agricultural activities but instead are connected with industry
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business and in a few cases with the professions.
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Swinging from those principal parties of the right to the left the Chilean left
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consists of a formidable coalition of four parties communist
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socialist national Democratic and National Vanguard of the people.
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The first two of which are deserving of comment. The Communist Party
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has been represented in Chile's politics longer and more consistently
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than have its counterparts in the affairs of any other Latin American
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country. It occupied a key position in the labor movement of Chile over a
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period of more than 40 years now and during much of this period was the principal
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political force among Chilean workers particularly in
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the mining zones of Chile which made possible the communist party
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automatically taking a stand that was anti-imperialist and anti
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US the Socialist Party has its roots
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according to the statements of its own history in the works of a
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mid 19th century French disciple of utopian
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socialism. However the theory and practice did not come together to make a
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meaningful party in Chile until early 20th century years and
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the birth of the labor movement in Chalet had with it genuine
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socialistic ideas concerning the role of the state.
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These parties to the extreme right and to the extreme left it to be
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remembered represent about 50 percent of the total political
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spectrum. Meanwhile the center is possessed of 50 percent of the
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strength and indeed presently is in control of the government of Chile.
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A word about that political center the center in Chilean politics
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is presently occupied by the Radical Party. Again formal title
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on the right and the Christian Democratic Party and the left of center
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position throughout the development of the Chilian party system. The Radical
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Party has been the medium of political expression of the middle class
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during the last two decades. The Christian Democratic Party by means of
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its Roman Catholic oriented reform program has succeeded in attracting large
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numbers of sympathizers from among the middle class groups that were
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traditionally in the Radical Party. This has made for an easy
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coalition of the two from 1932 to 64. The Radical Party
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had greater voting strength than any other single party
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in Chile. This has now swung to its near
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neighbor and ideological outlook. The Christian Democratic
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Party. No other party in the Chilean political system has had so varied a
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composition as the Radical Party. It has Northerners
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from the mining districts. It has artists and skilled labor. Some of the Southern small
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landowners small merchants professionals intellectuals even on
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occasion retired military officers. The
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newest and strongest of the political structures however is that that relates
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to the Christian Democratic Party the left wing of the center which
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came into existence only as recently as the late 19th 30s.
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The Christian Democratic Party in essence is a social pluralism a sort
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of support of a political democracy that advocates
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revolution with freedom.
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The Christian Democratic plank for the successful one thousand sixty four presidential
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elections specified the means by which their revolution with freedom might be
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achieved. They included democratization and
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modernization of political structures of today. The
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consulting of the people directly on fundamental issues extension of the franchise to
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all 21 years of age. The enumeration of the rights of labor in the
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Constitution such as the right to strike the improvement of public administration.
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This in terms of efficiency and honesty. Indeed you have the abolition of
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monopolies profit sharing plans a wider role for the government. The
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reduction of foreign interests in the economy. All of this means
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that they advocate peace universal disarmament the proscription of nuclear
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weapons the Pacific Solution of international controversies and the creation of
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institutions that would integrate the economy of Latin America.
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This is a sophisticated system of government with many many parties
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and today we have in the government of it wide open for he and President
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for each name is spelled f r i an effort on the part of
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Chile to move in a peaceful way toward a
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political and economic revolution. Such is the burden of the political system of
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Chile by Federico heel.
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This was a Latin American perspectives with Dr S. Harvey Gardner research
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professor of history at Southern Illinois University. Join us for our next
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program on Dr. Gardner We'll examine another aspect of life in Latin America
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Latin American perspectives is produced and recorded by station ws
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IUF am at Southern Illinois University and is distributed by the national
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educational radio network.
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