Democracy in trouble: social mobilization and Chile’s government’s responsiveness to trade unions and indigenous peoples

Abstract

In this paper we analyze trade unions and Indigenous peoples’ social action in Michelle Bachelet and Sebastián Piñera’s governments in Chile. We are based on a premise of the democracy in which the government’s capacity to meet society’s demands is essential. We intend to demonstrate the importance of trade unions and Indigenous people activism, which challenges governments –of different ideological sign– due to the absence or ineffectiveness of policies to solve their problems. To this end, we contextualize the alternating administrations of the presidents mentioned above. Based on documentary sources, the main trade unions and Indigenous peoples’ mobilizations are described, highlighting those that fought for guild-inspired demands, legal recognition of territories, and for the Peoples rights’ –mainly the Mapuche. Likewise, we use the government programs and plans to indicate the policies that the governing authorities developed in response to such demands from their particular projects. Finally, we emphasize the pending issues of democratic governments with differentiated social commitments, but with equivalent results in terms of the precariousness of work and the lack of full recognition of Indigenous rights.