ABSTRACT
The name Chile is thought to be derived from an Aymara word that means "where the land ends." Chileans think of their country as a territorial unit the operation of which lies entirely in the hands of the president who has been elected by the sovereign will of the people and who is therefore responsible in his actions to them. In a pioneer work on the social characterization of Chile, Armand Mattelart and Manuel Garreton proposed a typological scheme of the Chilean population based on socioeconomic variables at municipal levels. Leaning on that information, Armand Mattelart drew up a picture of the socioeconomic characteristics of the country that is more suitable for a regional analysis of its politics. The constitutional documents drafted by the Chilean separatists insisted on the establishment of a "Chamber of peoples' representatives" with similar privileges as the junta or the chief of state.
