Partidos, coaliciones y el Congreso chileno en los alias noventa

Abstract

Prior to the military regime of 1973-1990, Chile's Congress was widely regarded as among the strongest legislatures in Latin America, largely because of the nature fits part/ system. In the wake of the transition back to democracy, the role of both Congress and the nature of the legislative perky system are open to question. This paper examines the nature oflegislative careers, the leadership of inn& tutions of Congress (committees and mesas directives), and patterns of floor voting in the Chamber of Deputies to evaluate the relative importance of Chile's traditional parties and the two new main coalitions in structuring legislative behavior. I conclude that the coalitions are more important institutional actors than has been recognized by most of the literature on the past-transition Chilean Congress.