Pinochet’s Upswing: The Demise of a Democratic Society in Chile

Authors

• Jacob Behnk, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

First Advisor

Tim Turnquist, School of Global Integrative Studies

Date of this Version

7-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Citation

Behnk, J. (2026). "Pinochet’s Upswing: The Demise of a Democratic Society in Chile." Undergraduate Honors Thesis. University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Comments

Copyright Jacob Behnk, 2026

Abstract

In the United States, we tend to view democracy as an inviolable tenet of political life. Our nation’s founding is even romanticized as a heroic fight for liberty against the wicked tyranny of the British monarchy. It is unthinkable that democracy could ever be destroyed, let alone have the citizens cheer on those who engineer its destruction—yet this is the very situation that Chile found itself regarding Augusto Pinochet, a brutal dictator who ruled the country with an iron fist from 1973 to 1990. Pinochet would be voted out of power in a 1988 plebiscite, but still managed to win over 40% of those who participated in the vote. I argue that there are five factors that could explain the voting decisions of these Chileans that sought authoritarian answers to national crises: orderly authoritarianism juxtaposed against chaotic democracy, the villainization of leftists by the junta, positive economic experiences among middle- and upper-class citizens, identification with and the promotion of cultural conservatism, and fear of the consequences that could result from voting a certain way. Through this topic, I also aim to provide a general chronology of the Allende years and Pinochet dictatorship, with a brief reflection on the status of Chile in the modern democratic era and fragility of liberal democracy in the twenty-first century.