ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the strategies of Chilean presidents when naming their ministers in the period between 1990 and 2014. There were five presidents during this period, four of whom were from the Coalition of Parties for Democracy, the center-left coalition that won the elections in 1989 after 17 years of dictatorship. The fifth president led a rightwing administration that won elections in 2010. Even though the Chilean presidential system confers important powers to the president and presidents held majorities in Congress for much of this period, we argue that the presidents did not necessarily use unilateral strategies to govern. In the Chilean case, it has not been possible to establish a pattern between cooperation or unilateral strategies and the type of minister profile, or ministers’ duration in their positions. A potential explanation is the institutional design laid out in the constitution of 1980, which set certain limits to the executive’s power, although the institutional arrangements established during the transition were also important.
