While much research exists on the role of digital media use in protest movements, few studies compare the long-term impact of protests on online use of alternative and mainstream digital media. This holds particularly true in countries of the global south. Our study addresses this knowledge gap by examining the massive demonstrations that occurred in Chile on 18 October 2019. Based on data from 1,221,487 Facebook posts from 31 media outlets collected 10 months before and after the protests, we detected significant discontinuities in users’ interactions with news content. Whereas both media types display different baseline levels, for alternative media, the time series reflects a “step” type of shock—a long-lasting increase in news sharing—whereas for mainstream media, it is a “pulse” type of shock—a burst of interactions that quickly returned to pre-existing levels. These results suggest that social media users relied on alternative news media to amplify counter-public spheres in Chile.

The Sistema de Evaluación de Impacto Ambiental (Environmental Impact Assessment System—SEIA) evaluates all projects potentially harmful to human health and the environment in Chile. Since its establishment, many projects approved by the SEIA have been contested by organized communities, especially in the energy sector. The question guiding our research is whether socio-environmental conflicts affect the evaluation times and the approval rates of projects under assessment. Using a novel database comprising all energy projects assessed by the SEIA, we analyzed 380 energy projects that entered the SEIA review process between 2012 and 2017 and matched these projects with protest events. Using linear and logit regression, we find no association between the occurrence of protests aimed at specific projects and the probability of project approval. We do, however, find that projects associated with the occurrence of protest events experience significantly longer review times. To assess the robustness of this finding, we compare two run-of-river plants proposed in Mapuche territory in Chile’s La Araucanía region. We discuss the broader implications of these findings for sustainable environmental decision making.

This article argues that cartelised coordination inside Chilean congressional committees is important for understanding the success rates of presidential initiatives. By way of an analysis of the amendment process undertaken both in the Chamber and Senate committees in the Chilean Congress during 2006–10, the authors review the approval patterns of legislative amendments. The analysis suggests two chief findings: coordination between government parties and the executive is crucial for the success of amendment; and the opposition’s success in generating legal transformations depends on the construction of inter-coalition alliances. It is hoped that the perspective offered here will contribute to the current literature on cartel party theory in Latin America.

The purpose of this article is to explore how the features of districts affect representation activities in the Chilean Congress. Based on an analysis of interventions by deputies in the so-called Incidents Hour (Hora de Incidentes), we argue that district conditions affect the kind of appeals that deputies make. Specifically, we test two main hypotheses: a) that the degree of rurality of districts predicts greater use of policy intervention at the local level (local credit claiming), and b) that distance from the centre is an incentive for deputies to taking a position on local issues (local position taking). This article contributes to an understanding of how institutional spaces in the Congress serve not only as instruments for legislation but also, and with equal relevance, for representing constituents at the district level.

El 2017 en Chile fue un año distinto en términos políticos y coyunturales. Luego de un periodo de calma institucional, el gobierno debió enfrentar la emergencia de los incendios forestales, los problemas de corrupción en Carabineros y las denuncias de maltrato en dependencias del Servicio Nacional de Menores (SENAME). Sumado a ello, ese año se desarrollaron las elecciones presidenciales, parlamentarias y de consejeros regionales. Para el caso de las elecciones parlamentarias, significó también el estreno de la reforma electoral que reemplazó el sistema binominal por otro con distritos de magnitudes variables. Sostenemos que este cambio de regla electoral provocó tres efectos en los actores políticos: a) cambio de ambiciones en un contexto de incertidumbre, b) nuevas estrategias de trabajo territorial en campañas y c) renovación de las expectativas de nuevos actores tradicionalmente excluidos de la competencia electoral.

How do political candidates combine social media campaign tools with on-the-ground political campaigns to pursue segmented electoral strategies? We argue that online campaigns can reproduce and reinforce segmented electoral appeals. Furthermore, our study suggests that electoral segmentation remains a broader phenomenon that includes social media as but one of many instruments by which to appeal to voters. To test our argument, we analyze the case of the 2017 legislative elections in Chile. We combine an analysis of Facebook and online electoral campaign data from 80 congressional campaigns that competed in three districts with ethnographic sources (i.e., campaigns observed on the ground and in-depth interviews with candidates). The results of this novel study suggest that intensive online campaigning mirrors offline segmentation.