Introduction

Voting in a democratic, pluralistic state is the exercise of a civic right whereby an individual, without coercion, expresses his preference for a certain candidate, issue, or ideology. In dealing with the politics of the country, special traits of the Chilean political mentality have to be recognized and taken into account. As in other countries in Latin America, national politics have been centralized in the capital city. This has led to an abnormal dependence of the provinces on the politics developed in Santiago and to the emergence of strong anticentralist feelings. The ordinary Chilean voter, unlike the political activist, longs for a superior leader or for one that he believes is superior. The continuous search for a messiah explains yet another trait of the Chilean voter, namely his inconsistency. The cartograms of presidential elections clearly depict in which electoral unit a candidate obtained a plurality and how important that particular unit was in relation to the national electorate.