The Chilean people have been deprived of proper democratic rule for much of their history. Although measures were put in place to classify the country as a democracy, there were also a series of interruptions that never allowed the democratic process to flourish. The dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet brought profound and seemingly robust changes that manipulated Chile's political landscape and stagnated its economic growth; crush the revolutionary left and sharply shift economic attention to the market. Thus, I argue that Chile can only be considered a true democracy after the fall of Pinochet; which can be attributed to military respect for the law and a societal reinvigoration of democracy. By defining what a democracy is and Chile's previous form of governmental authoritarianism, objective barriers can be established for evaluation. First, a "democracy" as defined by Larry Diamond is: "A civil and constitutional system in which the legislative and executive functions are renewed through regular, competitive, multiparty elections by universal suffrage..., the absence of domains of reserve power, ... the vertical responsibility of leaders towards the governed requires horizontal responsibility of those responsible towards each other. »1 Authoritarianism, as defined by Samuel Huntington, "is characterized by a single or weak party, no mass mobilization, perhaps a 'mentality' but no ideology, limited government, ... and no effort to remake society and human nature. therefore, whichever side the military is on usually wins. Throughout Latin America...... middle of paper ...... up to the government outlines. However, many countries around the world use ancient patterns of government but are able to practice democracy because they have barriers to prevent abuse of power. Chile's creation of programs like the "Confederation of Production and Commerce" creates a healthy barrier between the market and the country's leaders, so that there is communication but not manipulation. Other institutions like this were established by leaders after Pinochet.14 The most difficult task for the future of democracy will be maintaining good civil-military relations. Coming back to the central argument, the idea that Chile can only be considered a democracy after the fall of Pinochet is fully supported. If we consider the definitions given at the beginning of the document, a democracy is a democracy