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It Takes Two to Tango: Students, Political Parties, and Protest in Chile (2005–2013)

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Handbook of Social Movements across Latin America

Part of the book series: Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research ((HSSR))

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the interaction between social movements and political actors in a democratic context, with an emphasis on the relationship with political parties. Based on the case study of the Chilean student movement, it discusses how this movement has shown resilience and strong mobilization capacity, but at the same time faces great obstacles in reaching the broad impacts it seeks. In order to understand this paradox, we argue that it is important to consider the contradictory and ambiguous but progressive distancing between the student movement and traditional political parties. This process of distancing is traced back to the years 2005–2006, during a previous mobilization of high school students. In thinking about the strategies of the movement, the ideology of the governing coalition (right- or left-wing) matters less than for previous generations of activists, as does the political affiliation of representatives in Congress.

Marisa von Bülow is a political science professor at the University of Brasilia in Brazil and a researcher at the Pontificia Universidad Católica in Chile. Germán Bidegain Ponte is a Ph.D. candidate at the Political Science Institute at PUC-Chile.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See the section on education of the Government Program presented during the campaign, available at http://michellebachelet.cl/programa/, esp. p. 17.

  2. 2.

    According to the public opinion surveys conducted by the Center for Public Studies (Centro de Estudios Públicos—CEP) at the end of 2010, 38 % of those surveyed thought that education was one of three key public policy areas in which the government should focus its efforts. This percentage increased to 44 % at the height of the protests (June–July 2011), losing in relevance only to security issues (47 %). Data comparing answers to this question since 1990 shows that education had never been considered so important by so many Chileans. In mid-2013, on the eve of the Presidential elections, education remained the key policy area for 44 % of those surveyed. At the end of 2011, over 60 % of respondents supported the organization of street protests by students. See the data available in www.cepchile.cl (accessed 08/31/2013).

  3. 3.

    The best-known examples are of the most visible 2011 leaders, both of whom won seats in the Chamber of Deputies in 2013: Camila Vallejo, of the Communist Party, and Giorgio Jackson, for a new independent movement, Revolución Democrática (Democratic Revolution). Besides Vallejo and Jackson, two other important student leaders were elected: Gabriel Boric from another independent movement, Izquierda Autónoma (Autonomous Left), and Karol Cariola, also from the Communist Party.

  4. 4.

    Between February and November of 2013 we conducted 30 interviews with leaders (those that held key elected positions in students’ organizations in 2006, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013) in the cities of Santiago, Concepción, Antofagasta, and Punta Arenas.

  5. 5.

    See: http://www.emol.com/noticias/nacional/2011/07/19/493428/presidente-pinera-afirma-que-la-educacion-es-un-bien-de-consumo.html (accessed 08/21/2013).

  6. 6.

    See the data available in http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/888932846975.

  7. 7.

    Scholarships usually do not cover all the tuition fees. According to the OECD, “It is estimated that the scholarships today cover between 63 and 70 % of the actual cost of tuition fees. For the rest, students must take out loans” (OECD 2009, p. 106).

  8. 8.

    Between 1994 and 2010, over half a million students used the CS to pay for their education (MINEDUC 2010, p. 11).

  9. 9.

    It is very hard to know the exact number of private loans contracted, but the number is high. In only one case, of the CORFO (Corporación de Fomento de la Producción de Chile) loan, in 2012 there were 106,000 students indebted with this type of loan. Information disclosed by the Executive Vice President of COFO during the the 11/06/2013 session of the Education, Sport and Recreation committee of the House of Representatives. The session transcription is available online: http://www.camara.cl/pdf.aspx?prmID=15577&prmtipo=ACTACOMISION (accessed 08/09/2013).

  10. 10.

    “No al lucro” in Spanish.

  11. 11.

    According to the Ministry of Education (2012), in 2011 39 % of the students were enrolled in public schools, 52 % in private subsidized schools and 7 % in private paying fees schools. The remaining 2 % of students were enrolled in secondary institutions financed by the state but administrated by private actors that provide technical and professional qualification.

  12. 12.

    For instance, only the accredited institution’s students can benefit from some government supported loans.

  13. 13.

    See: http://ciperchile.cl/2012/03/30/eugenio-diaz-renuncio-a-la-cna/ (accessed 08/27/2013).

  14. 14.

    On January 2013 the Executive sent a bill to Congress, which proposed a reform of the accreditation system of tertiary education institutions. This bill is currently under debate. See: http://www.gob.cl/destacados/2013/01/08/presidente-pinera-firmo-proyecto-de-ley-que-crea-nuevo-sistema-de-acreditacion-para-la-educacion-sup.htm (accessed 05/09/2013), and http://www.biobiochile.cl/2012/12/17/ministro-beyer-pondra-suma-urgencia-a-proyecto-que-busca-reformar-sistema-de-acreditacion.shtml (accessed 08/27/2013).

  15. 15.

    DFL 2 2010, articles 56 (letter e), 67 (letter e) and 75 (letter e). This was a reaction of the dictatorship against the institution of co-government in the universities in the 1968 Reform.

  16. 16.

    The 1980s military reforms decentralized primary and secondary education. This process is known in Chile as the “municipalización” of the education, because the municipalities became administratively responsible of the schools located in their jurisdictions. The demand for “demunicipalization” aimed at reinforcing the role of the central government in public education provision.

  17. 17.

    Personal interview with Daniel Carrillo, 2006 high school student leader, Concepción, August 30, 2013.

  18. 18.

    President Bachelet’s first speech to the nation, in May of 2011, ignored the students’ demands and focused on a critique of violence during the protests.

  19. 19.

    See: http://www.dii.uchile.cl/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/08_LA_TERCERA_Alto-nuuumero-de-integrantes-dificultaraaa-trabajo-de-Consejo-Asesor-de-Educaciooon.pdf (accessed 18/01/2014).

  20. 20.

    The final composition of the commission counted with 82 members, 16 of them were student representatives. See the final report of the commission, available at: http://www.facso.uchile.cl/psicologia/epe/_documentos/GT_cultura_escolar_politica_educativa/recursos%20bibliograficos/articulos%20relacionados/consejoasesorpresidencialparalacalidaddelaeducacion(2006)informefinal.pdf (accessed 18/01/2014).

  21. 21.

    According to official police data, the protests organized on 4, 18, 24, and 25 of August resulted in 2434 demonstrators arrested (Data provided to the researchers by Carabineros de Chile).

  22. 22.

    See: http://www.diarioelcentro.cl/?q=noticia&id=6536 (accessed 05/09/2013).

  23. 23.

    Personal interview with Julio Sarmiento, 2010 president of the Universidad de Chile Students’ Federation, Santiago, August 15, 2013.

  24. 24.

    Personal interview with Úrsula Schüler, 2009 general secretary of the Universidad de Chile Students’ Federation, Santiago, June 5, 2013.

  25. 25.

    Personal interview with Julián Parra, 2010 vice president of the Universidad Católica Students’ Federation, Santiago, May 23, 2013.

  26. 26.

    In the Congress this was a very small party, with 3 deputies out of 120 in the House of Representatives and no Senators.

  27. 27.

    Personal interview with Sebastián Vielmas, 2011 general secretary of the Universidad Católica Students’ Federation, Santiago, June 11, 2013.

  28. 28.

    Personal interview with a 2011 student leader.

  29. 29.

    Personal interview with Camilo Ballesteros, 2010–2011 president of the the Universidad de Santiago Students’ Federation, Santiago, August 15, 2013.

  30. 30.

    Personal interview with Pablo Iriarte, 2011 president of the Universidad Católica del Norte Students’ Federation, Antofagasta, July 15, 2013.

  31. 31.

    Personal interview with Sebastián Vielmas, 2011 general secretary of the Universidad Católica Students’ Federation, Santiago, June 11, 2013.

  32. 32.

    Mesa Directiva FECH, “Agosto Estudiantil: declaración mesa FECH sobre la toma Casa Central Universidad de Chile,” August 18, 2012.

  33. 33.

    See: http://www.gob.cl/informa/2012/09/26/presidente-pinera-promulga-ley-que-otorga-beneficios-a-deudores-cae.htm (accessed 06/09/2013).

  34. 34.

    Minute of CONFECH meeting, April 27, 2012.

  35. 35.

    It is also interesting to note that one of the student leaders elected, Camila Vallejo, had lost her reelection as President of the Federation of students at her university in 2012, to another student faction that criticized her affiliation to the Communist Party.

  36. 36.

    See the interview given by the FEUC President on December 26, in http://www.emol.com/tendenciasymujer/Noticias/2013/12/26/25098/Naschla-Aburman-La-pingina-que-aprendio-la-leccion-no-ceder-a-la-primera.aspx (accessed December 26, 2013).

  37. 37.

    In 2009 the Concertación and the Communist Party reached an electoral agreement that allowed the Communists to have parliamentarians in Congress for the first time since transition (three deputies were elected). Nonetheless, this electoral pact did not integrate the Communist Party to the coalition. In fact, the Communist Party integrated a different coalition with its own presidential candidate.

  38. 38.

    See, for example, declarations by Camila Vallejo in http://www.lanacion.cl/camila-vallejo-jamas-haria-campana-por-bachelet/noticias/2012-01-15/171839.html (accessed 06/09/2013).

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Acknowledgments

Research discussed in this publication has been supported by various institutions: the Global Development Network (GDN), Fondecyt Project 1130897 and the Millennium Nucleus for the Study of Stateness and Democracy in Latin America, Project NS100014. The views expressed in this chapter are not necessarily those of GDN or of the other supporting institutions. We thank Joaquín Rozas and the other members of the Fondecyt research group for their help with the interviews conducted with student leaders, and Antoine Maillet and Sofía Donoso for comments on a previous version of this chapter. A preliminary version was debated in the seminar organized at the Political Science Institute at PUC-Chile, and we thank the many comments and suggestions received then.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Political Science Institute, University of Brasilia, Brasília, Brazil

    Prof. Marisa von Bülow

  2. Political Science Institute, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Prof. Marisa von Bülow & Germán Bidegain Ponte Ph.D.

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  1. Prof. Marisa von Bülow
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  2. Germán Bidegain Ponte Ph.D.
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Correspondence to Marisa von Bülow .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Sciences Humanities and Arts, University of California, Merced, California, USA

    Paul Almeida

  2. FLACSO-Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica

    Allen Cordero Ulate

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von Bülow, M., Bidegain Ponte, G. (2015). It Takes Two to Tango: Students, Political Parties, and Protest in Chile (2005–2013). In: Almeida, P., Cordero Ulate, A. (eds) Handbook of Social Movements across Latin America. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9912-6_13

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