La oposición política en Chile durante el período 1990-2011. Una aproximación conceptual y empírica

This paper discusses the development of opposition parties and coalitions in Chile since the putting in place of the first democratic government in 1990. Assuming that opposition plays a pivotal role in the functioning of a democratic system, the paper demonstrates that –with regards to changes and alterations of an immediate context– the evolution of opposition in Chile can be characterized by its reactive attitude, sometimes combining competence with collusion and cartelization. The author argues that it is the electoral domain, in which the opposition has adopted the most offensive attitude and left the task of informal negotiation between representatives of two key coalitions to other entities.