Power, Legitimacy, and Institutions in the October 2019 Uprising in Chile

The 2019 uprising in Chile was the outcome of an erosion of political arrangements and the politicization of popular unrest that developed over three decades. Two explanations for it—the political mobilization of the groups that emerged from the neoliberal reforms (the “new people” approach) and the mismatch between institutions and society (the “decoupling” approach)—can be reconciled by emphasizing the connections between elite and popular politics. Analyzing the long-standing relationship between power, legitimacy, and political institutions provides a framework for understanding this and other events of massive unrest.