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Academic Freedom under Dictatorship in Chile: Coalition Building and Inter-Stakeholder Collaboration from 1980 to 1989
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2025
Abstract
This essay examines academic freedom in Chile under the 1980s Pinochet military dictatorship. While much has been written on the topic, the literature is fragmented and difficult to access owing to the diverse range of stakeholders involved. Historians have tended to explore single cases, actors, and institutions to highlight struggles with the Chilean dictatorship. Bringing their stories together and assessing them collectively, however, sheds new light on this episode of academic freedom. It captures collaboration among students, faculty, and the public across multiple settings that has not yet been adequately explored by existing literature. Through an analysis of secondary and primary sources—including monographs, journal articles, government reports, newspaper articles, and Spanish-language publications—this essay traces a collaborative turn during the dictatorship that occurred separately among students, faculty, and the public as well as between those groups. It thus offers insight into the Chilean experience during the 1980s and the cooperative efforts to protect academic freedom.
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References
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17 Bayle, “Back Home,” 207.
18 Government reports include the US Department of State’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices and the Rettig Report by the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation of Chile. This project takes into consideration that the US State Department has its own agenda, influencing the collection and disclosure of relevant academic freedom information. See, for instance, Benjamin E. Bagozzi and Daniel Berliner, “The Politics of Scrutiny in Human Rights Monitoring: Evidence from Structural Topic Models of US State Department Human Rights Reports,” Political Science Research and Methods 6, no. 4 (Oct. 2018), 661-62, 675. Similar considerations are applied to limitations with newspaper sources. See Leila Demarest and Arnim Langer, “How Events Enter (or Not) Data Sets: The Pitfalls and Guidelines of Using Newspapers in the Study of Conflict,” Sociological Methods & Research, 51 no. 2 (2022), 634.
19 Paul H. Lewis, Authoritarian Regimes in Latin America: Dictators, Despots, and Tyrants (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005). Street, “Political Intervention”; Green, We Cannot Remain Silent; Beigel, The Politics of Academic Autonomy.
20 Patricia L. Hipsher, “Democratic Transitions as Protest Cycles: Social Movement Dynamics in Democratizing Latin America,” in The Social Movement Society: Contentious Politics for a New Century, ed. David S. Meyer and Sidney Tarrow (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998), 153-72; Rita Arditti, Searching for Life: The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo and the Disappeared Children of Argentina (Oakland: University of California Press, 1999).
21 Hipsher, “Democratic Transitions.”
22 Hank C. Jenkins-Smith, Daniel Nohrstedt, Christopher M. Weible, and Paul A. Sabatier, “The Advocacy Coalition Framework: Foundations, Evolution, and Ongoing Research,” in Theories of the Policy Process, ed. Paul A. Sabatier and Christopher M. Weible (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2014), 183-224.
23 Michael Coppedge et al., Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Codebook v11.1 (Gothenburg, Sweden: Varieties of Democracy [V-Dem] Institute, 2021), 233, 313.
24 Edward Freeman, Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010); Alberto Amaral, Glen A. Jones, and Berit Karseth, eds. Governing Higher Education: National Perspectives on Institutional Governance, vol. 2 (Berlin: Springer Science & Business Media, 2013); Liudvika Leisyte and Don F. Westerheijden, “Stakeholders and Quality Assurance in Higher Education,” in Drivers and Barriers to Achieving Quality in Higher Education, ed. Heather Eggins (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2014), 83.
25 Freeman, Strategic Management, 46.
26 Leisyte and Westerheijden, “Stakeholders and Quality Assurance.”
27 Leisyte and Westerheijden, “Stakeholders and Quality Assurance.”
28 Jenkins-Smith, Nohrstedt, Weible, and Sabatier, “The Advocacy Coalition Framework”; Christopher M. Weible, Kristin L. Olofsson, and Tanya Heikkila, “Advocacy Coalitions, Beliefs, and Learning: An Analysis of Stability, Change, and Reinforcement,” Policy Studies Journal 51, no. 1 (Feb. 2023), 209-29; Kayla M., Gabehart and Christopher M. Weible, “Advocacy Coalition Framework,” in Encyclopedia of Public Policy, ed. M. Van Gerven, C. Rothmayr Allison, and K. Schubert (New York: Springer, 2023), 1-10; Kristin L. Olofsson and Christopher M. Weible, “Advocacy Coalition Framework, Higher Education,” in The International Encyclopedia of Higher Education Systems and Institutions, ed. Pedro Nuno Teixeira and Jung Cheol Shin (Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer Netherlands, 2020), 100-06.
29 Gabehart and Weible, “Advocacy Coalition Framework,” 1.
30 Abraham Magendzo and María Isabel Toledo, “Moral Dilemmas in Teaching Recent History Related to the Violation of Human Rights in Chile,” Journal of Moral Education 38, no. 4 (Dec. 2009), 445-65; Loveman, “Military Dictatorship”; United States Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1980), hereafter cited as CRHRP.
31 Loveman, “Military Dictatorship.”
32 Loveman, “Military Dictatorship”; CRHRP, 374; Magendzo and Toledo, “Moral Dilemmas in Teaching Recent History.”
33 Fleet, “Academic Freedom and University Autonomy in Chile”; Magendzo and Toledo, “Moral Dilemmas in Teaching Recent History”; Comisión Nacional sobre Prisión Política y Tortura [Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture], Informe de la Comisión Nacional sobre Prisión Política y Tortura (Valech I) [Report by the National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture to the President of the Republic] (Salesianos Impresores, 2003); Dante J. Salto, “Comparative Higher Education Policy under Nondemocratic Regimes in Argentina and Chile: Similar Paths, Different Policy Choices,” Higher Education Policy 35, no. 1 (March 2022), 63-80; Levy, “Chilean Universities”; Loveman, “Military Dictatorship”; Paul Drake and Ivan Jaksic, eds., The Struggle for Democracy in Chile (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995); Jorge S. Correa, “Dealing with Past Human Rights Violence: The Chilean Case after Dictatorship,” Notre Dame L. Rev. 67, no. 5 (1992), 1455; Street, “Political Intervention”; CRHRP, 374; United States Institute of Peace, Report of the Chilean National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation, vol. 1 (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1993).
34 Gaurav J. Pathania, The University as a Site of Resistance: Identity and Student Politics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018).
35 Fleet, “Academic Freedom and University Autonomy in Chile,” 2; Loveman, “Military Dictatorship,” 2.
36 Fleet, “Academic Freedom and University Autonomy in Chile,” 2, 4; Loveman, “Military Dictatorship,” 10; Levy, “Chilean Universities,” 107.
37 Fleet, “Academic Freedom and University Autonomy in Chile,” 8; Levy, “Chilean Universities,” 101, 102.
38 Fleet, “Academic Freedom and University Autonomy in Chile,” 9.
39 Levy, “Chilean Universities.”
40 Fleet, “Academic Freedom and University Autonomy in Chile,” 4; Levy, “Chilean Universities,” 104.
41 Fleet, “Academic Freedom and University Autonomy in Chile,” 6.
42 Fleet, “Academic Freedom and University Autonomy in Chile,” 10.
43 Fleet, “Academic Freedom and University Autonomy in Chile,” 10.
44 Fleet, “Academic Freedom and University Autonomy in Chile,” 4; Levy, “Chilean Universities,” 111.
45 Levy, “Chilean Universities,” 108.
46 Levy, “Chilean Universities,” 108.
47 CRHRP, 374, 437.
48 CRHRP, 375.
49 Loveman, “Military Dictatorship”; CRHRP, 437; Levy, “Chilean Universities.”
50 Juan de Onis, “New Crackdown in Chile Greets Appeals for Changes,” New York Times, July 10, 1980, sec. A, p. 2; “Professors Sacked in Chile,” Xinhua General Overseas News Service, Jan. 27, 1980.
51 de Onis, “New Crackdown”; “Professors Sacked.” Tom Fenton, “Banished Chilean Like Exile Village but Not Government,” Associated Press, April 20, 1980.
52 de Onis, “New Crackdown.”
53 Eduardo Gallardo, “Police Brace for More Violence after 4 Killed, More Than 750 Arrested,” Associated Press, Nov. 7, 1985; Carlos Agurto Tapia, “Chile: Waiting for the Confinement to End,” IPS-Inter Press Service, Jan. 22, 1985; “In Chile, Velvet Glove Cannot Hide the Iron Fist,” IPS-Inter Press Service, March 20, 1986.
54 Luis Alberto Jara, “Chile: Crisis Over Military Rule of Universities,” IPS-Inter Press Service, Feb. 6, 1986, Nexis. Uni.
55 Youssef Ibrahim, “Rise in Chilean Torture Charged,” New York Times, Sept. 9, 1980, sec. A, p. 4; Juan de Onis, “Rightist Terrorists Tied to Chile Death,” New York Times, Aug. 5, 1980, sec. A, p. 4; Juan de Onis, “Chile’s Military Ruler to Ask Voters to Back Extension of His Power,” New York Times, Aug. 12, 1980, sec. A, p. 1.
56 World News Digest Staff, “Vergara Death Aftermath,” Facts on File World News Digest, Aug. 8, 1980; Juan de Onis, “High-Ranking Chilean Army Officer Assassinated,” New York Times, July 16, 1980, sec. A, p. 3.
57 World News Digest Staff, “Vergara Death Aftermath”; “Seek Leftist Gunmen for Slaying of Army Colonel,” Associated Press, July 16, 1980.
58 CRHRP, 439.
59 “Chile: Action Demanded on Political Violence,” IPS-Inter Press Service, June 28, 1985; “Chile: Widow of Assassination Victim Blames Secret Police,” IPS-Inter Press Service, April 11, 1985; “Chile: Police Disperse Protest over Triple Murder,” IPS-Inter Press Service, March 27, 1986.
60 “Chile: Police Disperse Protest”; Enrique Martini, “Chile: One Year Later, Triple Murder Still an Open Case,” IPS-Inter Press Service, March 28, 1986.
61 Tom Fenton, “Chilean Strongman Begins 10th Year in Power,” Associated Press, Sept. 10, 1982; Edward Schumacher, “A Chilean’s Dark World: Exiled in His Own Land,” New York Times, Dec. 10, 1982, sec. A, p. 2; Geri Smith, “Chile Accuses Church of Supporting Opposition,” United Press International, Sept. 11, 1982.
62 Levy, “Chilean Universities,” 109, 110.
63 “Seven University Students Occupied the French Embassy in Santiago,” United Press International, Jan. 21, 1981.
64 “Seven University Students”; James Nelson Goodsell, “Chile’s Pinochet Takes on Trappings of Civilian Presidency,” Christian Science Monitor, March 9, 1981.
65 “Two Reported Killed in Chilean Protest,” New York Times, May 13, 1983, sec. A, p. 3; “Chile: University Unrest Intensifies,” IPS-Inter Press Service, April 22, 1986.
66 CRHRP, 449, 450, 451; “Chile: University Students Protest Leaders’ Arrests,” IPS-Inter Press Service, Sept. 30, 1985.
67 CRHRP, 449, 450, 451; “Chile: Student Shot by Police Dies,” IPS-Inter Press Service, April 10, 1985.
68 CRHRP, 429, 451.
69 “Chile: Student Burned Alive,” IPS-Inter Press Service, July 10, 1986; “Chile: Student Leader Abducted, Tortured,” IPS-Inter Press Service, Dec. 23, 1986.
70 “Chile: Student Unrest Spreads in Protests Against Detentions,” IPS-Inter Press Service, Oct. 2, 1985; “Chile: Student Leader Said Detained In ‘Concentration Camp,’” IPS-Inter Press Service, Feb. 19, 1985.
71 Levy, “Chilean Universities,” 109; CRHRP, 376, 437.
72 “Chile: University Unrest Intensifies.”
73 CRHRP, 464, 465.
74 “Chile: Hunger-Striking Students Hospitalized,” IPS-Inter Press Service, Aug. 3, 1984.
75 “Chile: Student Unrest Spreads.”
76 “Chile: Hundreds Arrested in Protests for Prisoners’ Release,” IPS-Inter Press Service, Oct. 10, 1985.
77 “Chile: Student Leader Said Detained.”
78 “Police Raid Universities, Arrest 471 Students,” United Press International, April 18, 1986.
79 “Chile: University Unrest Intensifies.”
80 de Onis, “New Crackdown In Chile”; “Professors Sacked in Chile”; Danny Monsálvez Araneda and León Pagola Contreras, “Intelectuales bajo la dictadura de Pinochet: Una aproximación al ‘Grupo de los 24’ (1978-1988),” Revista de Historia 23, no. 2 (July-Dec. 2016), 125-43; Javiera Sfeir and Maximiliano Jara, “Pluralismo y representación: El Grupo de los 24 y su proyecto de sistema electoral para una electoral para una futura democracia en Chile (1978-1984),” Intus-Legere Historia 15, no. 2 (Dec. 2021), 403-21.
81 Sfeir and Jara, “Pluralismo y representación”; Araneda and Contrera, “Intelectuales bajo la dictadura.”
82 Jean-Pierre Clerc, “Chile: Second Wind for the Dictatorship; Sold to the Highest Bidder,” Guardian Weekly, April 5, 1981; Paul E. Sigmund, “Revolution, Counterrevolution, and the Catholic Church in Chile,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 483, no. 1 (Jan. 1986), 25-35.
83 Sigmund, “Revolution, Counterrevolution.”
84 CRHRP, 439.
85 Malcolm Coad, “Pinochet’s Fist Closes on Chile University,” Guardian, Oct. 21, 1987.
86 Coad, “Pinochet’s Fist Closes on Chile University”; World News Digest Staff, “University Student Shot,” Facts on File World News Digest, Oct. 23, 1987; “Police Break Up Student Demonstration, Girl Shot in the Head,” Associated Press, Sept. 24, 1987; Anthony Boadle, “Rebels Release Letter from Kidnapped Colonel,” United Press International, Sept. 7, 1987; Kevin Noblet, “Teachers Strike over Spending Cuts,” Associated Press, Oct. 19, 1987.
87 Noblet, “Teachers Strike.”
88 Noblet, “Teachers Strike”; World News Digest Staff, “University Student Shot”; Coad, “Pinochet’s Fist Closes on Chile University”; “Police Break Up”; Thomas Eisner and Peter Raven, “School in Chains,” New York Times, Oct. 29, 1987, sec. A, p. 31.
89 Shirley Christian, “A Chilean Dispute over University Turns Violent,” New York Times, Oct. 1, 1987, sec. A, p. 13.
90 Eisner and Raven, “School in Chains”; Coad, “Pinochet’s Fist Closes on Chile University.”
91 “Military Gov’t Accepts Removal of Controversial University Rector,” Associated Press, Oct. 30, 1987.
92 Boadle, “Rebels Release”; Noblet, “Teachers Strike.”
93 Coad, “Pinochet’s Fist Closes on Chile University.”
94 Coad, “Pinochet’s Fist Closes on Chile University”; Tim Frasca, “Chileans Protest Military Control of University,” Christian Science Monitor, Oct. 28, 1987.
95 Cristian Cabalin, “Neoliberal Education and Student Movements in Chile: Inequalities and Malaise,” Policy Futures in Education 10, no. 2 (April 2012), 219-28.
96 Francisca Palma, “El día que la Chile le dobó la mano a Pinochet,” El Paracaídas 11 (2015), 28.
97 Palma, “El día,” 28.
98 Frasca, “Chileans Protest.”
99 Eisner and Raven, “School in Chains”; Christian, “A Chilean Dispute”; Malcolm Coad, “Pinochet ‘In Humiliating Climbdown’ over Strike: Chile’s Protesting Students Win the Dismissal of Controversial Rector,” Guardian, Oct. 31, 1987.
100 Coad, “Pinochet’s Fist Closes on Chile University.”
101 Palma, “El día,” 28.
102 Frasca, “Chileans Protest Military Control of University.”
103 World News Digest Staff, “University Student Shot”; Coad, “Pinochet’s Fist Closes on Chile University”; Thomas V. O’Brien and Ricardo Souza de Carvalho, “Generations of Protest: Chile’s Students and the Fight for Democracy, 1975-2016,” International Educational Review 1, no. 1 (April 2023), 93-94; Palma, “El día,” 28-32; Thomas C. Bruneau and Mary Mooney, A Political Transition in Chile? Problems and Prospects on the Long Road to Democracy (Monterey, CA: Naval Postgraduate School, 1987), 29-30.
104 Palma, “El día,” 29-30.
105 World News Digest Staff, “University Student Shot”; “Police Break Up Student Demonstration.”
106 “Police Raid Universities, Arrest 471 students.”
107 Boadle, “Rebels Release”; Eisner and Raven, “School in Chains,” 31; Noblet, “Teachers Strike”; O’Brien and de Carvalho, “Generations of Protest,” 93; Bruneau and Mooney, A Political Transition in Chile, 29-30.
108 O’Brien and de Carvalho, “Generations of Protest,” 93.
109 World News Digest Staff, “University Student Shot”; “Police Break Up Student Demonstration.”
110 O’Brien and de Carvalho, “Generations of Protest,” 94.
111 O’Brien and de Carvalho, “Generations of Protest,” 94; Palma, “El día,” 28.
112 “Doctors Strike, Students Expel Dean,” United Press International, Oct. 27, 1987.
113 “Doctors Strike, Students Expel Dean.”
114 Eisner and Raven, “School in Chains.”
115 Coad, “Pinochet’s Fist Closes on Chile University.”
116 Frasca, “Chileans Protest.”
117 O’Brien and de Carvalho, “Generations of Protest,” 94.
118 Eisner and Raven, “School in Chains.”
119 Coad, “Pinochet ‘In Humiliating Climbdown.’”
120 “Military Gov’t Accepts Removal.”
121 Malcolm Coad, “Chile Opposition Holds Its Breath: The Chances of Pinochet Handing Over Peacefully Next March,” Guardian, Sept. 11, 1989; Greg San Miguel, “Chile Takes a Small Diplomatic Leap; Valparaiso Postcard,” Sydney Morning Herald, Aug. 11, 1989.
122 Barbara Durr, “Pinochet Regime Names Unelected Senators,” Financial Times (London), Dec. 21, 1989.
123 O’Brien and de Carvalho, “Generations of Protest,” 93-94; Palma, “El día,” 28-30; Bruneau and Mooney, A Political Transition in Chile, 29-30.
124 Loveman, “Military Dictatorship”; Levy, “Chilean Universities.”
125 Jenkins-Smith, Nohrstedt, Weible, and Sabatier, “The Advocacy Coalition Framework.”
126 Jenkins-Smith, Nohrstedt, Weible, and Sabatier, “The Advocacy Coalition Framework.”
127 Fleet, “Academic Freedom and University Autonomy in Chile”; CRHRP; US Institute of Peace, Report of the Chilean National Commission.
128 CRHRP.
129 Fitzgerald, “Claiming Their Intellectual Space”; Kuhlberg, “‘By Just What Procedure?”; Metz, Radicals in the Heartland; Moretta, “Governors, Regents, and New Deal Liberalism”; Porwancher, “Prying the Gates Wide Open.”