This book presents a re-examination of classical issues in the relationship between different forms of democratization, civil, political and social, and examines Chile’s transition to democracy during the 1990s as a typical case of the modern sequence. It highlights the lasting institutional limits to social democratization in countries that are democratizing in the context of radical market reforms and provides an account of the politics of limiting social deepening in the crucial early years of Chile’s transition, including a detailed examination of the influence of local union history and labour relations.