Liberal Party of Chile (2013)

Ideology

Liberal Party of Chile (Spanish: Partido Liberal de Chile) is a social-liberal party in Chile. The party identifies itself with the egalitarian liberalism, progressive liberalism and social liberalism (with particular reference to the social liberalism in Europe).

The Chilean social liberalism

In Chile the word liberal is after the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet often synonymous with technocracy and neoliberalism since Pinochet based his reforms on the neoliberalism presented by Milton Friedman and the Chicago boys. The Liberal Party of Chile is based on social liberalism and does thus oppose the neoliberalism which still influences many institutions in Chile. Retaking the tradition of the first liberals of the 20th century the Liberal Party of Chile intends to combine the economic policy with a strong social policy. In Latin America the majority of the liberal parties are founded on neoliberalism and therefore Liberal Party of Chile is one of the only social liberal parties in Latin America.

Liberal platform

Liberal Party of Chile defend the freedom of the individual in values such as same-sex marriage, the legalisation of marijuana, the legalisation of abortion and the legalisation of euthanasia. Further they support decentralization which also opposes the heritage of Pinochet who implemented centralism in the country. Finally the party supports the change of the Chilean constitution implemented by Pinochet in 1980.

The tradition of the Chilean social liberalism

Liberal Party of Chile is inspired by the tradition of the Chilean liberals from before the rise of Pinochet and the Chilean neoliberalism. They supported a Federal State, hated tyranny and concentration of power and wanted the secular state to promote social rights such as public education. Liberal Party of Chile is inspired by these ideas and pursue them to a broader extent as they e.g. want free education for all. Among the figures of the liberal party of the 20th century were Ramón Freire, José Miguel Infante, Francisco Bilbao, Pedro León Gallo Goyenechea, Domingo Santa María and José Manuel Balmaceda.

The Chilean political context

In Chile the historic Liberal Party ceased to exist in 1966 when it merged with the United Conservative Party giving rise to the National Party which supported the coup de tat of 1973. The label "liberal" were afterwards captured by the economists - also known as the Chicago Boys - that inspired the dictatorship. However the historical liberal ideas such as the defence of civil rights were not practised during the dictatorship while during the governments of the Concertacion, conservatism characterised the Chilean politics. Thus the liberalism present in Chile in the years after Pinochet were predominantly neoliberalism. The system established in Chile during the dictatorship was not challenged much until the middle of 2011. The Chilean student protests of 2011 showed for the first time in 35 years a general discomfort with the Chilean political system which was criticized for excessively favouring the privatization of public benefits. The demonstrations criticized that the market is the main resource allocator and that the private sector manages a lot of the public services. The criticism also targeted the constitution since major legislative changes require super-majorities in the congress while the electoral system favours two political blocs which blocks the political process. Finally the demonstrations also criticized that the Constitutional Court have the power of the veto.

Birth of Liberal Party of Chile

The Liberal party of Chile has its origin in the movement ChileFirst (ChilePrimero). ChileFirst was a political movement created in 2007 by former members of the Party for Democracy (Partido por la Democracia) led by the senator Fernando Flores Labra and supported the candidature of Sebastian Pinera in the presidential election of 2009 and 2010.

After a break with the original founders 26 January 2013 the party was founded officially as the Liberal Party of Chile (Partido Liberal de Chile). This performed a name change to the existing ChilePrimero. Young people, among whom the majority was below 35 years old, founded the party. Liberal Party of Chile is inspired by the ideals of the Chilean liberalism from the 19th century and especially by the values of secularism, democratic reforms and freedom of initiative. The majority of the founders were young, a part of the middle class and not previously members of other parties.

15 June 2013 the party announced the formation of an electoral alliance with the Progressive Party (Partido Progresista – PRO) and decided to give its support to Marco Enriquez Ominame as presidential candidate in the election of 2013. The pact was called "If you want Chile changes" (Si tuquires Chile cambia) and included the Liberal party of Chile with deputes, senators as well as regional councillors supporting it. In the parliamentary elections of 2013 the party's President Vlado Milosevic was elected as deputy of the 1. district, the Region of Arica and Parinacota.

Parliamentary elections

Parliamentary election results for deputies in District 1 (Arica, Parinacota, General Lagos y Putre)

Fuentes: Ministerio del Interior y TRICEL.

Directive