Election of Regional Governors in Chile: Scenarios of Change in Intergovernmental Relations

Summary

This article reviews the political reform to decentralization in Chile that will begin to rule in full after the regional governors' elections of 2021. Based on an intergovernmental relations approach, I show possible scenarios of lack of coordination in regional political dynamics that could lead to conflicts as a result of the existence of two new regional authorities with similar powers. In view of the weakness of the new institutional design, this article proposes the creation of a regional policy coordination body. The main conclusion is that the decentralization reform was conceived more as a process of autonomy and democratization, than as an instance of strengthening intergovernmental relations in order to implement better subnational public policies.