Chile: An Analysis from the Perspective of National Security

El Mostrador, Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Understanding that this political reality is here to stay, if we want the system known as Chile to function, we will need to abandon the current presidential system and transition to a semi-presidential system or, directly, to a parliamentary system like those operating in Anglo-Saxon countries. This is necessary due to the complete disconnection between the Executive and the Parliament and the existence of autonomous bodies that, while having a very sound and logical purpose, diminish the authority of the Executive and make governance extremely difficult.

I usually write about national defense, the Armed Forces, naval and maritime issues, but on this occasion, I am doing so in a personal capacity and have taken the liberty to view Chile from a non-traditional perspective of national security. I say non-traditional because I start from the premise that national security is not at risk when a country enjoys economic health, a modern, sustainable, equitable, and inclusive development program, responsible, mature, and solid institutions, political actors who seek the best for the country and not just for their own tribe, and, even more importantly, that all parts function in harmony, self-regulated, and as part of a whole that has a clear purpose, which is nothing other than the well-being and security of all Chileans.

It should be noted that in my non-traditional definition of national security, I have not included the defense of Chile against external threats, which is covered by the traditional approach employed in Chile and which the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces are concerned with maintaining control over, nor have I included what may be jeopardizing public order and internal security of the Republic, which are rather the effects suffered by a system that is not operating correctly or where some of the parts I indicated in the non-traditional definition of national security are failing.

Having said all of the above, let us examine how we are doing and, if we are not doing well, what we should do. But before addressing the specific components of the system and its operation as a whole, let us discuss the issue of leadership. Leadership is critical when we want to evolve from one stage to another or when the system is failing and we need to fix it. I believe there is a national consensus that it is not operating adequately, so the first thing we need is the right and appropriate leadership for the circumstances we are facing.

The economy is not functioning as we would like. It is not only the pandemic that is to blame for this; external demand for our production, our overdependence on the export of commodities and the fact that many shareholders want dividends now and are unwilling to reinvest profits for future returns also contribute to this situation.

This leads us to the concept of sustainable, equitable, and inclusive development, which is something that common sense and everyone desires, but we fail to understand how it works and how to implement it so as not to kill the golden goose in the process.

I understand the frustration that many in Chile feel regarding inequality, but I also believe we must be responsible in understanding that if we squeeze all the juice from the lemon, there will be nothing left to work with, and we must ensure the long-term sustainability of our development, which not only requires it to be supportive and equitable but also starts from the premise that the economic model must produce, since evidently, if it does not produce and does not function, there is nothing to subsequently distribute to shareholders, the Chileans.

From the economy, we move to the operation of institutions and political actors, which range from the Presidency, through Congress, the Courts, the Comptroller’s Office, to more recently created institutions such as the Public Ministry, the Constitutional Court, the National Human Rights Institute, and the Council for Transparency, which are certainly very necessary but diminish the authority of the Executive and complicate the political leadership of Chile, which per se is complicated since the elimination of the binomial system, creating a chamber without clear majorities and without synchronization with the Executive.

Understanding that this political reality is here to stay, if we want the system known as Chile to function, we will need to abandon the current presidential system and transition to a semi-presidential system or, directly, to a parliamentary system like those operating in Anglo-Saxon countries. This is necessary due to the complete disconnection between the Executive and the Parliament and the existence of autonomous bodies that, while having a very sound and logical purpose, diminish the authority of the Executive and make governance extremely difficult.

What I want to make clear is that a poorly designed political system like the one we have in Chile produces and will produce poor results if it is not changed and fixed. The current system, which began with the return to democracy and featured a strong presidentialism in sync with a binomial Congress and a traditional judicial system, was able to bring us to where we are, but we cannot expect that the previous system, modified without operational logic, will be able to sustain us and extricate us from the entanglement that poor design has delivered. It is time to view our political system as a whole and by the results it produces.

In this period when we are functioning poorly and where, due to the extended constitutional schedule we have entered, it will not produce tangible results for a couple of years, we need politicians and national authorities to agree on how we will make Chile function, not to get stuck or, worse, to self-destruct. That is why I recommend that the Presidency of the Republic focus on the politics of agreements and, why not, govern with a national unity cabinet, which should have as its main purpose to ensure that we can successfully navigate through this storm and reach port.

Chile has a tradition of veering off course from time to time, but I do not believe we want to end up with a military government as we did in ’73, when political irresponsibility led us to a point of institutional breakdown. It is time to be clear about the consequences of a system when it does not measure up and to understand that the incorrect operation of the political system is indeed a national security problem.

Richard Kouyoumdjian
Vice President of AthenaLab