Bonilla, Claudio A.Carlin, RyanLove, GregorySilva Méndez, Ernesto2016-11-232016-11-232011Public Choice, vol. 146, n° 1/2, p. 9-21. 13p. 3 Diagrams, 2 Charts.http://hdl.handle.net/11447/853http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11127-009-9580-2Lipset and Rokkan's (Party system and voter alignments: cross national perspectives, Lipset and Rokkan eds., New York: Free Press, pp. 1-64, ) sociological model of cleavages and the so-called 'freezing hypothesis' dominate theorizing about party system formation. Torcal and Mainwaring (Br. J. Polit. Sci. 33:55-84, ) show the relevance of a purely political cleavage for structuring the party system in the case of Chile, challenging the freezing hypothesis's claims. They also dispute case-specific research that argues Chile's party system still reflects a 'three-thirds' division between Left, Right, and Center. Revisiting this debate, our study employs spatial maps of the party system. Such political-economy models are rare in studies of Latin American politics. The application here supports a democratic/authoritarian political cleavage in Chile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]en-USPolitical sociologyResearchDemocracyAuthoritarianismPolitical partiesChilePolitical scienceArtículo