The Chilean Social Democracy Party (Spanish: ''Partido Socialdemocracia Chilena'' (SDCH), until August 1973 Radical Left Party (''Partido Izquierda Radical'') was a

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

centre-left Centre-left politics is the range of left-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. Ideologies commonly associated with it include social democracy, social liberalism, progressivism, and green politics. Ideas commo ...

orientation, formed by dissident

Radicals Radical (from Latin: ', root) may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Classical radicalism, the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and Latin America in the 19th century *Radical politics ...

in 1971.

History

In its XXV Congress that took place from 31 July to 5 August 1971, the Radical Party confirmed the left-wing line it had taken already in 1967. The congress declared that the Radicals discard

bourgeois democracy Liberal democracy, also called Western-style democracy, or substantive democracy, is a form of government that combines the organization of a democracy with ideas of liberal political philosophy. Common elements within a liberal democracy are: ...

as an instrument of capitalist domination and the Radical Party is now a

socialist party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

, that subscribes to

class struggle In political science, the term class conflict, class struggle, or class war refers to the economic antagonism and political tension that exist among social classes because of clashing interests, competition for limited resources, and inequali ...

and

historical materialism Historical materialism is Karl Marx's theory of history. Marx located historical change in the rise of Class society, class societies and the way humans labor together to make their livelihoods. Karl Marx stated that Productive forces, techno ...

. Disquieted by the Marxist influence, on 3 August, the Senators Bossay, Baltra, Acuña, Juliet and Aguirre and deputies Ibáñez, Magalhaes, Naudón, Basso, Clavel, Sharpe and Muñoz Barra left the Radical Party. They founded a new party of radicals with more moderate political views, though paradoxically called Partido Izquierda Radical – Party of Radical Left. The new party initially remained part of the Unidad Popular. In March 1972, Allende and the Christian Democrats tried to forge a compromise. The Radical Left Party represented the UP coalition in negotiations. The radical minister of justice Manuel Sanhueza held talks with the Christian Democratic Party over regulations of nationalized firms, but ultimately failed, as the socialist minister of economy

Pedro Vuskovic Pedro Vuskovic Bravo (February 25, 1924 – May 10, 1993) was a Chilean economist of Croatian descent, political figure, minister and author of the economic plan implemented by Salvador Allende during his government called the '' Vuskovic plan'' ...

boycotted the negotiations and carried out legally dubious

expropriations Eminent domain, also known as land acquisition, compulsory purchase, resumption, resumption/compulsory acquisition, or expropriation, is the compulsory acquisition of private property for public use. It does not include the power to take and t ...

. As a result, the Radical Left quit the UP coalition. The party then participated in the 1973 election within the centre-right opposition bloc

CODE In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communicati ...

. In 1983, it was a founder of the Democratic Alliance. The party split in 1988. One faction called for a Yes vote on the referendum (for Pinochet), and formed a new ephemeral Chilean Social Democrat Party that soon merged with the Progressive Union of the Centrist Centre. The other faction called for a No vote and joined the opposition cartel

Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia The Concertación, officially the Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia (; ), was a coalition of center-left political parties in Chile, founded in 1988. Presidential candidates under its banner won every election from when Chilean trans ...

, and eventually merged with the Radical Party to form the

Social Democrat Radical Party The Radical Party of Chile (), is a classical radical political party in Chile. The party has also been referred to as liberal, social-liberal, and social-democratic. The party is a member of Socialist International and participant in the ...

Presidential candidates

The following is a list of the presidential candidates supported by the Party of Social Democracy. (Information gathered from th
Archive of Chilean Elections
. *1988 plebiscite: “No” (won) *

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

Patricio Aylwin Patricio Aylwin Azócar (; 26 November 1918 – 19 April 2016) was a Chilean politician from the Christian Democratic Party of Chile, Christian Democratic Party, lawyer, author, professor and former senator. He was the 30th president of Chil ...

(won) *

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle Eduardo Alfredo Juan Bernardo Frei Ruiz–Tagle (; born 24 June 1942) is a Chilean politician and civil engineering, civil engineer who served as president of Chile from 1994 to 2000. He was also a Senate of Chile, Senator, fulfilling the role of ...

(won)

References

{{Authority control 1971 establishments in Chile 1994 disestablishments in Chile Defunct political parties in Chile Political parties disestablished in 1994 Political parties established in 1971 Radical parties in Chile Radical Party of Chile