Download file 141 KB Texto completo en español More of: Alfredo Joignant R. Patricio Navia

Undoubtedly, a party that goes from 9.8% to 25.2% of the votes in just 12 years of elections can be considered, from a regulatory standpoint, to be a politically prosperous, and therefore successful, organization. However, the authors of this article note, when that party achieves a significant electoral expansion regardless of its strong and enthusiastic public adherence to the unpopular legacy of a tough and crude military dictatorship, that party’s "prosperity" makes it obligatory to manifest a more serene and analytical view alien to the passions inherent to the political struggle. Throughout this article, the fast electoral penetration of the Independent Democratic Union (UDI) is analyzed and discussed, emphasizing its logic of growth and electoral consolidation against the background of a notable homogeneity of its congressional members. The hypothesis of this study is that the successful electoral penetration by the UDI since 1990 is not only due to a certain type of territorial and strategic engineering deployed by its leaders from which the gradual and growing implantation of unionism in districts and popular urban communities will become its clearest expression. The electoral growth in the UDI can also be focused and understood, the authors say, on the basis of the sociology of its congressional members whose notable cultural homogeneity gives the UDI, as a party organization, the capacity to claim, successfully, considerable degrees of organic discipline and political coherence. This proves to be highly effective when facing electoral cycles as do members of Congress.