Of Populism and the Popular Front: reflections on Chilean democracy

Abstract

The Popular Front (Frente Popular) as the first unification of the chilean left-wing parties finds its most traditional explanations in a party analysis and in the way in which this unity managed to bring the first “Radical Government” to presidency. This research tries to show a different version of that Front: of a dimension that goes deep in symbolic as well as emotional and popular aspects that frequently rule political attitudes. Emphasizing the debates about imperialism, democracy and the poor condition of society, in this research I highlight a different aspect of the way in which the Popular Front expressed itself between 1933 and 1938. Through Ernesto Laclau’s theory of populism and a wide historical interpretation of the facts that took place in that context, light is shed on the main debates about the concept of democracy as a symbolic union of a plurality of actants, as well as on the role of antagonism in the construction of popular subjects. The leading idea throughout this work is that the electoral triumph was the result of the creation of a democratic society rather than of pure electoral calculation.