Resumen de Where is Linz’s gridlock? Salvador Allende and the success of presidential bills in Chile, 1958–1973

Patricio Navia, Rodrigo Orlando Osorio Montoya, Pablo Toro Monroy

• We study the success of presidential bills in Chile between 1958 and 1973 anddisprove the claim, made by Linz and others, in the debate on the perils ofpresidentialism, that Salvador Allende (1970–1973) suffered from legislativeparalysis. We revise the 1113 bills introduced by presidents Jorge Alessandri(1958–1964), Eduardo Frei (1964–1970) and Allende, and identified thoseenacted. Allende had a lower success rate but introduced more bills than Freior Alessandri and, by the time his term abruptly ended, had enacted morelaws than his predecessors. Changes to lawmaking rules likely inducedAllende to introduce more bills than his predecessors. While presidentialismmight have its perils, especially for minority presidents, Allende did notexperience legislative gridlock when compared to other Chilean presidents.Although some key Allende bills failed to pass, especially in the last year, theopposition-controlled Congress passed some Allende bills even in the weeksbefore his overthrow.