From the Wave of Protests in October 2019 to Constitutional Change: The political significance of social mobilisations in Chile

Resum

The paper examines the causes of Chile’s October 2019 wave of protest and the path taken in the
relationship between institutional policies and social mobilisations, and that led to the 2020
referendum for a New Constitution. It is based on a hypothesis on the transformation of society and
the configuration of democracy in its cultural and political dimensions. The key question posed is:
To what extent can the two main problems be solved?, to wit: (1) finding a new social-economic
order to replace the model imposed during the dictatorship (“Neo-Liberalism with Chilean features”)
—a model that was tweaked by the Concertación and the Nueva Mayoría Centre-Left coalition
governments (Garretón, 2012; Mayol, 2013; Atria; 2013); (2) coming up with new kinds of links
between politics and social movements, offering scope for going beyond the classic model and for
marking a radical break
with the past, as in Chile’s case.