RADICAL GOVERNMENTS: ANTECEDENTS, GOVERNMENTS AND PRESIDENTS - HISTORY - 2025

The Radical Governments is the name of a period in Chilean history that includes between 1938 and 1952 and is characterized by the fact that all the presidents belonged to the Radical Party.

This political organization appeared in the 19th century, being formed by dissident members of the Liberal Party. Until that time, there had been an alternation between conservative and liberal governments. The emergence of a growing middle class prompted the new alternative to emerge.

The Radical Party defended the principles that emerged from the French Revolution. Its political principles were based on the defense of freedom, equality, solidarity, participation and well-being.

To achieve power, he needed to ally himself with some parties of the Chilean left, with whom they formed the Popular Front that won the 1938 elections.

The elected president was Pedro Aguirre Cerda. The other two radical politicians who reached the presidency during this period were Juan Antonio Ríos and Gabriel González Videla.

Background

The Radical Party

The Radical Party appeared on the Chilean political scene in 1863, when some members of the Liberal Party decided to abandon it and create a new organization.

Its purpose was to oppose the country's oligarchy, with an ideology that drew from the ideals of the French Revolution.

In the time that elapsed until its foundation became official, in 1888, the party was enriched with contributions from related organizations, such as the Literary Society, the Reform Club and the Equality Society.

His political postulates were summarized in three fundamental points: fight against presidential authoritarianism, end the centralization of the administration and diminish the power of the church in Chile.

First electoral participations

Already during its first years of life, the members of the Radical Party began to participate prominently in the political life of the country.

Initially, they supported various liberal governments and, in 1886, presented their first presidential candidate. This, José Francisco Vergara was defeated before Balmaceda.

During the civil war, he positioned himself on the side of the congressmen, who fought against the presidentialism of José Manuel Balmaceda himself.

Turn towards social democracy

With the turn of the century, the Radical Party is adding elements of the social democratic ideology to its postulates. During the parliamentary era that emerged after the Civil War, they supported presidents such as Jorge Montt, Germán Riesco and Ramón Barros.

In 1920 they decided to support Arturo Alessandri, who presided over a reformist government that tried to focus on social issues. At that time, there were major problems in Chile, especially the high infant mortality rate.

At the beginning of the decade of the 30s, the Radical Party managed, for the first time, to reach the presidency. The one chosen for the position was Juan Esteban Montero. However, within a few months he was deposed by the 1932 coup.

Popular front

In 1937, the Radicals abandoned their traditional ties to the Liberal Party. Their turn to the left caused them to begin negotiating with the left parties for a coalition to stand in the next elections.

Finally, the process led to the creation of the Popular Front, in which, in addition to the radicals, the communists, the socialists and the Confederation of Workers participated.

Within that alliance, the Radical Party represented the country's middle classes and got their candidate to be the designated candidate to try to be president.

Governments and Presidents

Pedro Aguirre Cerda

The elections took place on October 25, 1938. In them, the Popular Front won the majority and the radical candidate, Pedro Aguirre Cerda, was elected as President. His appointment took place on December 14.

The government chaired by Aguirre Cerda had to face several events that marked its trajectory: the 1939 earthquake, the beginning of the Second World War and an attempted coup.

Earthquake

The first of them, the earthquake, occurred just a month after he took office. On January 24, the earthwork caused the death of more than 30,000 people and the entire central area of ​​the country was destroyed.

Aguirre Cerda took advantage of this tragic event to strengthen Chilean economic and industrial policy. For this, he founded the Production Development Corporation, the body in charge of industrialization projects.

Some of the achievements of this corporation were the creation of the National Petroleum Company, the National Electricity Company and the Pacific Steel Company.

Second World War

On the other hand, the biggest internal problems it had to face were due to the World War.

The Communists, following Moscow's directives, abandoned the Popular Front, leaving it in the minority in the government. However, when Germany invaded the USSR, they decided to rejoin the cabinet.

Pedro Aguirre Cerda could not finish his term. Plagued by tuberculosis, he was forced to leave office in November 1941. He died only a few days later.

Juan Antonio Rios

Pedro Aguirre's death caused new Presidential elections to be called. These took place on February 1, 1942.

The radicals are again presented in a coalition, of which the Socialist Party, the Democratic Party, the Agrarian Party, the Communist Party, the Workers' Socialist, the Falangists and some liberals unhappy with their candidate were part.

The candidate was Juan Antonio Ríos, who was elected after obtaining 55.93% of the votes. Soon, the consequences of World War II caught up with his government.

In 1943, external and internal pressures forced him to break relations with the Axis. Even in 1945, Chile officially entered the conflict by declaring war on Japan.

Domestic policy

Inside, however, Ríos maintained the same line as his predecessor. In that legislature several hospitals were built and agriculture and public works were promoted.

Despite the comfortable majority, strong tensions began to appear between the President and the Party that supported him. The Alliance created for the elections began to break down, starting with the most right-wing sectors that left the government.

This caused an electoral growth of the Conservatives in the parliamentary elections held in 1945.

Disease

As happened to Aguirre Cerca, an illness was what forced Ríos to leave power. In this case, a cancer that had been discovered in 1944, although at that time not even the same person was reported.

A year later, the deterioration caused him to leave office, in principle, temporarily. Just during that period, the Plaza Bulnes Massacre took place, which caused the Alliance to almost completely break apart.

Finally, on July 27, 1946, Juan Antonio Ríos died a victim of his illness. Chile, again, was forced into new elections.

Gabriel Gonzalez Videla

The last of the radical governments was chaired by Gabriel González Videla. For the elections, they re-organized a new coalition with the left-wing parties. The campaign was led by Pablo Neruda, a communist senator at the time.

On this occasion, the new alliance obtained 40% of the votes, while its opponents did not reach 30%. The cabinet formed by González Videla was made up of liberals, radicals and communists, which augured a complicated coexistence.

It was the communists who took political advantage of the first months of government. In the municipal elections their results improved greatly.

This, together with the continuous mobilizations of workers who called to protest against the decisions of a government of which they were part, ended up destabilizing the cabinet.

The Liberals decided to leave the government and, in the end, González decided to expel the Communists and rule alone.

Cursed law

This decision did not stabilize the country. Demonstrations and strikes increased and some ended up causing several deaths.

The government reacted by violently repressing some of these mobilizations, such as that of the southern coal miners or the Chuquicamata miners.

González Videla then decided to enact the Law for the Permanent Defense of Democracy, known as the Damned Law. Through this, the Communist Party was banned and its members erased from the electoral registers. Likewise, many communist militants were admitted to the Pisagua prison camp.

The Law did not end the problems. The protests of the left continued and, in addition, a right-wing military faction tried to stage a coup.

These problems, together with the government's economic austerity policy, caused González to lose all citizen support.

References

1. Salazar Calvo, Manuel. Radical governments. Obtained from puntofinal.cl
2. Icarito. The arrival of the radicals to the government. Obtained from icarito.cl
3. Wikipedia. Radical Party (Chile). Obtained from es.wikipedia.org

4. US Library of Congress. Gabriel González Videla's Presidency, 1946-52. Retrieved from countrystudies.us
5. Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture. Radical Party. Retrieved from encyclopedia.com
6. John J. Johnson, Paul W. Drake. The presidencies of Aguirre Cerda and Ríos. Retrieved from britannica.com
7. Wikipedia. Juan Antonio Ríos. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org