Contesting Legitimacy in Chile: Familial Ideals, Citizenship, and Political Struggle, 1970-1990 by Gwynn Thomas (review)

Anyone who has conducted research in Chile has encountered the profound significance of family life. Gwynn Thomas makes a compelling and captivating case that Chilean politics can be viewed through the lens of the family. She concentrates on the left-wing presidency of Salvador Allende, the right-wing dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, and the centrist democracy of the Concertation. She provides accurate historical background and context for her analysis. With fluid prose, Thomas develops pathbreaking, sophisticated, and complex interpretations of the roles of families and familial beliefs, metaphors, and images in dramatic and divisive political changes. She examines both differences and similarities in the ways that diverse politicians have used and treated the nuclear family. Regardless of ideology, nearly everyone saw the family as the foundation of society, of relations between state and society, and of political legitimacy for government. This study's focus on the politics of the family and its gender components could well be adapted to other countries.

Thomas's original argument employs discourse analysis and a wide array of primary sources, including newspapers, magazines, propaganda, television shows, and public statements. The author applies content analysis to some of these documents, mainly political advertisements from the 1970 presidential campaign. She extracts graphic quotes and illustrations from these materials. Thomas also relies on a solid bibliography, which emphasizes writings in English more than Spanish. In particular, she builds upon previous pioneering work on gender and politics in Chile by Lisa Baldez, Elizabeth Hutchison, Julieta Kirkwood, Margaret Power, Karin Rosemblatt, Heidi Tinsman, and María Elena Valenzuela.

Thomas utilizes a matrix of four categories to organize the familial beliefs of political actors: Familial State, Familial Nation, Patriarchal Leader, and Militant Families. These concepts, respectively, shaped the ways Chileans expected the state to care for the family, analogized from the family to the national community, characterized leaders as fatherly figures, and mobilized citizens for political expression. This consensus provided a potential source of national unity as well as a contentious claim to legitimacy, to be wielded by clashing forces. Although sharing these perceptions and norms, the left placed more emphasis on providing social and economic support for families, while the right stressed protecting families from physical and moral dangers.

Politicians appealed to these family values and identities to justify purposes as divergent as protesting or defending Allende's socialism or Pinochet's tyranny. Under Allende (1970-1973), the left promoted welfare programs for working-class families, while the right mobilized upper and middle-class marches against threats to the traditional family. Under Pinochet (1973-1990), the left denounced the general's violations of the human and economic rights of families, while the right hailed his salvation of families from communism and violence. During the 1988 plebiscite that ended the dictatorship, these adversaries manipulated their contending family frameworks in the battle between authoritarianism and democracy. Thereafter, the first woman president, socialist Michelle Bachelet (2006-2010) redefined the Familial State by governing in a feminine and maternal fashion.

This insightful and stimulating book recasts our understanding of these epic political events. It will be welcomed by scholars and faculty as well as students, by political scientists and sociologists as well as historians, and by other area specialists as well as Latin Americanists. It contributes to gender and cultural studies without employing jargon. It is highly recommended.