Quebrando o monopólio: um estudo das candidaturas independentes no Chile

Abstract

This dissertation proposed to investigate the independent candidacies in Chile in order to understand the role that this form of representation has traditionally played in the political system of the country and what are the possible changes that are occurring at the present. Independent, civic, non-partisan or citizen candidacies are those in which the candidate is not required to be affiliated with a political party to run for an elective office. Today in Chile, as in the entire democratic world, there is a relative feeling of malaise on the part of the population with representative institutions, especially with its mediating bodies par excellence: political parties. Therefore, we seek to analyze whether independent candidates, long present in the Chilean political system, would be benefiting from the discredit of traditional parties and increasing their participation as paths to political representation, occupying to some extent places where this role was previously played in a hegemonic way by party machines. Our analysis focuses mainly on local governments, where the rules of the game and the shortest distance between voters and candidates can be even more beneficial to non-party candidates.