CIAO DATE: 10/02

Democracy and the Future of Civil-Military Relations in Chile: An Exercise in Historical Comparison

The years since the return of democracy in Chile in 1990 have been quite stressful in the area of civil-military relations. How will these relations develop in the future, and how will they affect the quality of Chilean democracy? While it is safe to say that tension in these relations will eventually subside, the manner in which this happens and the specific path that these relations take will heavily influence the nature of Chile's democratic regime. To address this question, I propose to focus on trends that emerged before the disquieting circumstances of the past decade and the immediate present. I submit that, in the domain of civil-military relations, an approach grounded in historical comparison is the proper strategy for a sound assessment of future trends.

Below, I indicate the terms of the proposed comparison and discuss its connection with other forms of comparison more commonly found in the literature. I then briefly describe the troubled nature of civil-military relations in the 1990s and follow with a presentation of the previous cases - historical junctures and processes - for this comparative exercise. First, an overview of the period of military professionalization allows a focus on the contradictory manner of insertion of the Chilean military in the political process that ended in the coup of 1924. I then present the period that followed the return to civilian rule in 1932, highlighting the relevant features that provide clues about the unexpected force with which the military rose to power in the coup of 1973. Next, the paper addresses the manner of tran-sition from military authoritarian rule, followed by a section on the ensuing democratic period. The final section compares all these periods with a view toward ascertaining future trends.

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