ABSTRACT
The sociopolitical project proposed by the popular movement in 1970, as expressed in the Popular Unity program, maintained continuity with the process of democratic expansion. The theoretical-ideological discourse of the Left displayed certain characteristics that seem to manifest the problem. Leftist discourse was dominated by “economistic” categories that mechanically projected the results of structural diagnoses of the Chilean economy onto the political dimension, without the necessary mediation of political and cultural ideological levels. A project of noncapitalist democratization, directed by parties representing broad popular sectors, was incompatible with the interests of the other sectors and with their consolidation and success as dominant social groups. In terms of a noncapitalist project, Chileans were witnessing the comprehensive dismantling of an unjust economic system that had threatened the potential of the democratizing process. Rebuilding the disarticulated capitalist system required reversing the popular process and nullifying its political and organizational manifestation.
