Chile: Prospects For Democracy

Timely and insightful essays, prepared for a study group at the Council on Foreign Relations, analyzing whether Chile can emerge from the 15-year military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet and restore democratic politics. Valenzuela's methodical chapter successfully predicts the triumph of the opposition in the October 1988 plebiscite and explains in advance how this might occur; Falcoff lucidly analyzes the deep, continuing division in Chilean society that will make it difficult to restore full democracy soon, despite the plebiscite's result; and Purcell discusses the resulting dilemmas for U.S. policy.