The Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program, Department of History and
Department of Anthropology
present
From the Penguin Revolution to the Broad Front: Politics in
Chile from 2006 to the Present
with Andrés Estefane, Center for the Study of Political History and School of Government, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez (Santiago de Chile)
Monday, November 20, 2017 2:55-4:20 p.m. Breslin 216 It is now commonplace to hear that Chilean politics is entering into a new era. Journalists and political analysts agree that the 2017 Presidential and Parliamentary Election will be a crucial test to the political system of the transition to democracy, after the end of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship in 1990. The recent organization of the Frente Amplio, or Broad Front, a left wing coalition positioned at the left of the ruling New Majority (Nueva Mayoría), indicates the potential of a significant political shift. Many of its main figures are part of a new generation of politicians and activists that burst into the political scene with the student protests that since 2006 –with the spark of the Penguin Revolution, named in reference to the uniform of secondary-level students— have been shaken Chile's post-authoritarian order. To what extent may one say that Chilean politics is effectively entering into a new stage? Is the Broad Front a real challenge to the political system that has ruled Chile for almost three decades? The day after the elections we will try to make sense of the motivations of this new coalition, and its potential to redefine Chilean political culture.