Chilean political party
This article is about the 20th century party. For the party formed in 2018 as the
Social Democrat Radical Party
, see
Radical Party of Chile (2018)
.
The
Radical Party
(Spanish:
Partido Radical
) was a
Chilean
political party. It was formed in 1863 in
Copiapo
by a split in the
Liberal Party
.
[1]
Not coincidentally, it was formed shortly after the organization of the
Grand Lodge of Chile
, and has maintained a close relationship with Chilean Freemasonry throughout its life. As such, it represented the
anticlericalist
position in Chilean politics, and was instrumental in producing the "theological reforms" in Chilean law in the early 1880s. These laws removed the cemeteries from the control of the Roman Catholic Church, established a civil registry of births and death in place of the previous recordkeeping of the church, and established a civil law of matrimony, which removed the determination of validity of marriages from the church. Prior to these laws, it was impossible for non-Catholics to contract marriage in Chile, and meant that any children they produced were illegitimate. Non-Catholics had also been barred from burial in Catholic cemeteries, which were virtually the only cemeteries in the country; instead, non-Catholics were buried in the beaches, and even on the Santa Lucia Hill in Santiago, which, in the 19th century, functioned as Santiago's dump.
In the 20th century, the radicals adopted a moderately center-left stance, taking part to
Pedro Aguirre Cerda
's
Popular Front
and then to the
Democratic Alliance
left-wings coalition which succeeded to Cerda's death. During the presidency of
Gabriel Gonzalez Videla
(1946?1952) it shifted to the right, and many of its members were anti-Communists. In 1950s, the party started to lose ground. At the end of the 1960s, left-wingers gained upper hand in the Radical party, causing some of the more right-wing leaders to leave the party. The
anticommunist
Radicals formed the
Radical Democracy
. In the crucial 1970 election, which resulted in the presidency of Salvador Allende, they formed an alliance with the right-wing National Party and, later, supported
Pinochet
's 1973 coup. In contrast, the Radical Party was part of the
Unidad Popular
coalition supporting
Salvador Allende
who became president in 1970. Radicals, supporting gradual reforms, were generally loyal to the leftist governing coalition.
In its XXV Congress that took place from 31 July to 5 August 1971, the Radical Party confirmed the left-wing line it had taken already in 1967. The congress declared that the Radicals discard
bourgeois democracy
as an instrument of capitalist domination and the Radical Party is now a
socialist party
, that subscribes to
class struggle
and
historical materialism
. On 3 August, Senators Bossay, Baltra, Acuna, Juliet and Aguirre and deputies Ibanez, Magalahes, Naudon, Basso, Clavel, Sharpe and Munoz Barra left the Radical Party. They founded a new party of radicals with more moderate views, paradoxically called
Partido Izquierda Radical
(
Radical Left Party
).
[2]
The new party initially remained part of the
Unidad Popular
. On the other hand, a moderate
Social Democrat Party
, up to then an independent party within the Unidad Popular bloc, merged with the Radical Party. During that time, the Radical Party of Chile declared their organization to be socialist and they officially adhered to the doctrines of historical materialism and class struggle.
[3]
Like other parties, it was banned after the 11 September 1973 coup.
In 1983, the Radical Party was one of the creators along with the
Christian Democrat
,
Liberal
,
Social Democrat
parties and the renewed sector of the
Socialist Party of Chile
, of the
Democratic Alliance
coalition opposing the Pinochet regime. Another area of radicalism, led by
Luis Fernando Luengo
, came to the United Left and founded the
Democratic Socialist Radical Party
(PRSD). Both parties supported the option NO in the plebiscite of 1988 and proclaimed
Patricio Aylwin
as their presidential candidate, but in the parliamentary elections of 1989 were presented in different lists; the PR was part of the coalition, while the PRSD participated in the list
Unity for the Democracy
with
Broad Party of Socialist Left
. After the return to democracy, the Radical Party reformed as a center-left group, and joined the Concertacion de Partidos por la Democracia, a coalition of parties which also included the Christian Democrats and the Socialists. Its electoral strength was greatly reduced from that which it had enjoyed between 1880 and 1950. In 1994 joined with the
Social Democracy Party
to form the
Social Democrat Radical Party
(PRSD).
Presidents elected under Radical Party of Chile
[
edit
]
Presidential candidates
[
edit
]
The following is a list of the presidential candidates supported by the Radical Party. (Information gathered from the
Archive of Chilean Elections
).
See also
[
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]
References
[
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]
- ^
Helen Bailey, Abraham Nasatir,
Latin America
, Prentice Hall, 1973
- ^
CRONOLOGIA 1971 La aceleracion de los cambios
- ^
Declaracion politico ideologica aprobada en la XXV Convencion Nacional del Partido Radical de Chile. [1972] Available at www.nuso.org/upload/articulos/17_1.pdf