Gonzalo García 3ro Polimodal History
Chile under Salvador Allende
Salvador Allende was the first Marxist leader to be voted in through a democratic election. It is still the only one of its kind and it shows the sort of problems likely to be faced by a Marxist government trying to function within a democratic system.
Before he became elected, there were three main parties or groups of parties: the Unidad Popular on the left, the Christian Democrats also on the left and the National Party that was a liberal/conservative coalition. The election of 1964 was won by Eduardo Frei, leader of the Christian Democrats, who belived in social reform. He began vigorously: inflation was brought down from 38 per cent to 25 per cent, the rich were made to pay their taxes instead of evading them, 360000 new houses were build, the number of schools was more than doubled, and some limited land reform was introduced. The American government admired his reforms and poured in lavish economic aid. But in 1967 things changed. The left thought his land reforms too cautious and wanted full nationalization of the copper industry, whereas the right thought he had already gone too far. Inflation soared again, because of a serious drought.
