The Presidentialization of Parties in Chile

Abstract

A central premise of this volume and the work on which it is based is that institutions and regime structure have a deep influence on party organization and behavior (Samuels and Shugart, 2010a). Because Chile is routinely characterized as one of the most presidential systems in the world (Shugart and Carey, 1992; Siavelis, 2000) it is especially appropriate to analyze the phenomena of the presidentialization of politics and parties in the country. The presidentialization of parties, in large part, is explained by Chile’s constitutional structure combined with endogenous party factors, a reality stressed repeatedly in the other chapters of this volume. In this sense, this chapter follows Samuels and Shugart (2010a) to argue that an extraordinarily strong presidential system sets the base for a trend of presidentialization parties. It also draws on Poguntke and Webb (2005) to underscore that, with the passage of time, party leadership autonomy has increased and the personalization of politics has magnified. This volume’s stated purpose, however, is also to enrich this literature on the presidentialization of parties by including an analysis of endogenous party factors. Along these lines, this chapter carries these arguments a step further to argue that the party dynamics of the democratic transition and its intersection of the country’s legislative election system have reinforced the presidentialization of parties.