El discurso del Partido Comunista de Chile sobre la democracia, 1956-1964

Abstract

The article examines the discourse elaborated by the Communist Party of Chile regarding democracy and the problem of its participation in what they considered to be the institutions of bourgeois democracy. The period that ranges from 1956 to 1964 was crucial for the Communist because, after the failure of the Popular Front, they developed a new political guideline, the Frente de Liberacion Nacional (National Liberation Front) and adopted the pacific road to socialism as part of their strategy. It is argued that, thanks to these changes, the Communist Party was able to effectively integrate to its discourse some elements of representative democracy, even when they were alien to its Marxist theory.