The origins of the territorial structure of the state

As argued by Brenner (2001, p.599), the social production of scale is subordinated to socio-political contestation and is therefore “historically changeable” and

malleable. In reconstructing a scalar geography of Chile, a historical review of its state territorial organisation becomes indispensable. By state territorial organisation, I refer to the structure of the nation-state power and its apparatuses and how these are spatially organised at different scales (Brenner, 1997, 1998). This encompasses the hierarchical organisation and the spatial distributions of state power in terms of governance, economy and politics (Lopez-Basaguren and Leire Escajedo, 2013; Brenner, 1997). In global-city literature, the scalar forms of state territorial organisations have been studied since the 1980s, arguing that such forms may vary over time, depending on the mode of production —especially under capitalism— and the social relations and struggles that are originated within (Brenner, 1997). In this section, I focus on the two main scalar forms of territorial organisation in the history of Chile, centralised and federalist models, but particularly on the processes of centralisation and decentralisation as distinctive forces in shaping the current territorial structure of the country.

The analysis starts with the Chilean process of decolonisation from the Spanish Empire that took place between 1808 and 1824 (Silva, 1995). According to Montecinos (2005), specific social, economic and political circumstances which precipitated the emancipation can help to explain the current “territorial centrality” of the Chilean state (Montecinos, 2005, p.440). These circumstances include poor colonial administration, trade monopoly, postponement of Creoles, absolutism and tyranny of colonial authority under both the Bourbon and the Hapsburg model. Equally important are the philosophical influences from the Enlightenment among Creole authorities, the French Revolution, and the Independence of the United States.

After 1810, similar to other Spanish colonies, Chile developed a process of decolonisation from the Spanish Empire and, with this, started the creation of the nation-state (in the sense suggested by Appadurai, 1996). The initial composition of the Chilean state was designed by the Government Junta of Chile or Primera Junta de Gobierno (Collier and Sater, 1996). The Junta, due to the imminent war against

the Spanish Empire, established wide political and military powers for the Head of the State, the Director Supremo or Supreme Director. The state project was concluded by issuing its first constitution in 1818, which maintained broad designated power to the Head of the State but also considered the separation of the state powers —i.e. the Supreme Director (executive), the Senate (legislative) and the Supreme Court (judicial)— and at least three provincias or regions: Coquimbo, Concepción and Santiago, the latter being the capital. According to Montecinos (2005), during this initial phase, the Supreme Director Bernardo O’Higgins governed following the previously established centralised patterns of the Spanish Empire. The state power was thus centralised in its capital Santiago de Chile and in the figure of Director Supremo.

In 1823 a new constitution was issued. In its Chapter XIX, municipalities received their first recognition as minor spatial entities which were subject to the orders of the Departmental Councillors (Silva, 1995). Councillors had to be appointed by the executive branch or the Supreme Director. This constitution was the first to refer to different aspects of the territorial structure of the state. For instance, that the State of Chile is declared ‘unitary and indivisible’ —so provinces or regions and municipalities cannot be considered as being part of the state— and its sovereignty resides in the ‘nation’ (Congreso Nacional Constituyente, 1823).

In early 1826, the so-called ‘federal laws’ were drafted by José Miguel Infante, a Chilean politician and admirer of the US federal system. These laws sought to transform the figure of the Supreme Director into the President of the Republic and delegate more autonomy to the provinces (Silva, 1995). However, the constitutional law was never written because José Manuel Infante lost the presidential elections that year (Donoso, 1963). This constitutional attempt resulted in a precedent for future struggles to restructure the state territoriality. Its proposals included the division of the territory into eight provinces (Coquimbo, Aconcagua, Santiago, Colchagua, Maule, Concepción, Valdivia and Chiloé) and that all authorities, including governors and parish priests, would be subject to a popular vote.

According to Montecinos (2005), this federalist attempt was produced as a result of the claims for autonomy by the provinces of Coquimbo and Concepción in opposition to the centralism dictated by Santiago.

Between at least one coup d'état and several other constitutional arrangements, the State of Chile “settled down” and came to form the construction of a “strong and centralised” country by 1833 (Montecinos, 2005, p.449). Villas or municipalities were acknowledged as minor administrative-spatial units, and the nation as the centrality from which order emanates. Each municipality must have an Alcalde or Mayor and each province an Intendente or Governor, both directly selected by the executive branch whose power resides in the Head of the State, the President of the Republic. The constitution of 1833 was in rule until 1925, a period of almost 100 years. According to Villalobos (1987), the ‘doctrinal content’ of the constitution encompassed the fundamental basis of a centralised institutional regime: national sovereignty, representative regime, division of state powers, governmental accountability and individual rights. Thus, this constitution established that the nation and its territoriality were to be exclusively delegated by national authorities, in this way centralising the administration of the state into the executive branch located in Santiago (Gran Convención de Chile, 1833).

In the period between the 1833 and 1924, nevertheless, territorial reconfigurations were not abandoned. The parliamentary system was introduced in 1891 which, in the following years, produced several constitutional reforms, including important autonomic measures such as municipal participatory budgeting and voter assemblies in provinces. However, by 1924, a military Pronuncimiento —a military rebellion, but different from a coup d'état12_{— ended any, and the hitherto achieved,} parliamentary attempts in Chile. In its place, the presidential system was re-

12 _{In a typical coup d'état, a rebel faction which controls some critical element of the armed forces}

seizes control of the state by a sudden movement, organised and executed in stealth; in a

pronunciamiento, a group of military officers publicly declare their opposition only to the current

government —that is, to the current chief executive and cabinet— who may be legally elected civilians or the result of a previous coup (Luttwak, 1969).

established by the Junta government. The first significant reform of the restored order was the dissolution of all municipal representatives and the designation of regional intendentes in their place (Salazar and Pinto, 1999).

After 1925, the centralised organisation of the territory was thus initiated by a doctrine based on the assumption that the success of municipalities and provinces was only possible through their alignment with national plans (Montecinos, 2005). The goal was to ‘discipline’ the municipalities under a national development plan that was promoted by President Ibáñez (Salazar and Pinto, 1999). The period between 1925 and 1973 is known as a ‘democratic presidential’ era. It is a phase marked by the rise of the middle class, great prosperity and sustained increases in living standards, including improvements in education and health, and the country was undergoing a process of industrialisation. This period also saw the implementation of several political and economic models, such as the socialist model during the Salvador Allende administration, and the Keynesian with President Aguirre Cerda. The latter had an important influence on the state territorial organisation of that time. In 1938, the republican-political alliance called Frente Popular or Popular Front won the presidency, the leader being the Radical Party politician Pedro Aguirre Cerda. President Aguirre Cerda implemented a Keynesian style economic model with strong state intervention in the national economic development (Montecinos, 2005).

The result of this ‘developmental’ inspiration was that the ‘state territorial organisation’ adopted new significance as a strategic tool of the state in order to promote economic growth and development in the country. In 1939, the Production Development Corporation (CORFO) was founded and thus the state took the helm as the motor of industrial dynamism and national growth. A consequence of industrialisation processes and the obsession with economic development and growth was that the principal cities of Chile —Santiago, Concepción and Valparaíso— emerged (Frías, 1960).