Opposition within Authoritarianism The Case of the Christian Democratic Party during General Pinochet's Regime in Chile

Abstract

What resources are available to opposition parties within a military regime? What are the institutional arenas within which their leadership can act? These are the questions that lead this article through the examination of the Chilean case. he text analyzes the opposition headed by the Christian Democratic Party (pdc) to the military dictatorship commanded by Augusto Pinochet, as well as the political resources available to them. It is argued that the resources available to the opposition stem particularly from the democratic tradition, with an emphasis on parties and certain institutions such as the Catholic Church, when their hierarchies keep a distance from the dictatorship. he significance of these resources depends on the scale of the breakup with democratic institutions caused by the authoritarian instauration. Among the resources the pdc counted on, the support provided by the German Christlich Demokratische Union (Christian Democratic Union/cdu) stands out. he analysis focuses on the period 1973 to 1982, when the German alliance was in the opposition; it examines the expressions of that support in Chile and in Germany. Keywords. Author Keywords:Christian Democratic Party; Pinochet; dictatorship; opposition; Chile; Germany