Democracy as Dictatorship

Abstract

In this essay I propose a radical demystification of the perceived image of Augusto Pinochet Ugarte’s Chilean dictatorship as a period of uniform terror that suffocated all popular contestation. Based on the differentiation of repressive styles and the popular responses to them, I propose that this perceived image has been artificially constructed in order to hide the historical continuity between Pinochet’s dictatorship and the current democratic regime. I relate this historic reconstruction to a more general thesis: I argue that there is an essential continuity between both political periods ruled by the deep dictatorial character of so-called current democratic regimes. To conclude I highlight the dictatorial mechanisms of current democracies as well as the political tasks that would allow for a progressive opposition to these same mechanisms.