ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the authoritarian regime in Chile under the leadership of General Augusto Pinochet, who had completed twelve years in power—the equivalent of two presidential periods of the long Chilean democratic era. It aims to provide changes in the regime that may have been determined by the political transformations that began in 1983 with the protestas and the policy of apertura and to assess the impact of these changes on the prospects for democratization. Concerning the deterioration and breakdown of authoritarian rule one must describe the preconditions for regime change, identify the phenomena that have triggered the transition from authoritarianism to democracy, and determine the rate and scope of this process. The authoritarian regime installed in Chile in September 1973 may be analyzed according to three constituent elements. There are: the heterogeneity of the regime's governing coalition; the adoption of a strategy of mixed legitimacy; and a low level of institutionalization and a high level of personalization of power.
