ABSTRACT
This article compares the Workers’ Party (PT), the Broad Front (FA) and the Socialist Party of Chile (PS) with regard to the degree of autonomy acquired by their leaders. To this end, it considers four explanatory factors, all linked to the organizational development of each party: the influence of the bases in the decision-making process; the balance of power between the different groups within each party; the ideological distance between these groups; and the existence (or not) of a single leadership capable of serving as the party’s point of reference and agglutination of the party. The analysis shows that the way these factors were combined in the FA’s trajectory allowed the party to maintain a consociative dynamic and a strong responsiveness of the leadership to its base, which was not the case in the other two parties.
Workers’ Parties; Broad Front; Chilean Socialist Party; leadership autonomy; organizational development