Disrupting Informal Institutions? Cabinet Formation in Chile in 2006 and 2014

Abstract

After her election to the presidency for the first time in 2006, Michelle Bachelet made good on a campaign promise to appoint a parity cabinet. Bachelet’s initial cabinet included ten women and ten men, with women holding some high-profile portfolios like defense and the Secretary General of the Presidency (SEGPRES). After winning the presidency for a second time in 2014, Bachelet appointed women to just 39 percent of portfolios, claiming that she would have liked to have gender parity in her cabinet, “but things are not that way” (La Segunda, January 24, 2014). Most observers and scholars agree that presidents enjoy exclusive authority to select their ministers, prompting questions about why Bachelet was not able to appoint a second parity cabinet. In this chapter, I argue that Bachelet’s statement exemplifies a tension at the heart of cabinet formation in Chile. While formal rules give presidents the right to select whomever they want, a series of informal, yet equally important, practices and norms surrounding cabinet formation limit those choices.