Abstract

This research estimates the candidates positions in the axis right-left for six Chilean presidential elections between 1970 and 2009, by using the Comparative Manifesto Project's (CMP) methodology. The aim is to test several hypothesis claimed by the mainstream literature in regards to the ideological evolution within political parties, and also to measure ideological distance among parties and coalitions. The results show that in 1970 there was a relevant ideological distance between the Left and the Center with respect to the right wing candidacy. Also, it confirms that after 1989 the Right-Wing Coalition (Alianza) and the Center-Left (Concertacion) presented a greater moderation in the distance, being stable until 2000 and further reduced since then. In that same line, the research shows that the extreme left (mainly the Communist party) also shows more moderate positions than those shown by Allende in 1970.