Independent Democratic Union

The Independent Democratic Union (Unión Demócrata Independiente, UDI) is a Chilean right-wing, conservative political party, founded in 1983. Its founder was the lawyer, politician and law professor Jaime Guzmán, a civilian who collaborated with Augusto Pinochet. Guzmán was a senator from 1990 until his assassination on April 1, 1991.

Its ideological origins date back to Guzmán's Guildist Movement, born out of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile in 1966, espousing the independence and depoliticization of intermediate bodies of civil society.

UDI, together with National Renewal (RN) and other minor movements, formed a coalition of right-wing parties called Coalition for Change, which is the successor to Alliance for Chile and rose to power in March 2010, after victory in the presidential elections of January 2010. It was the largest political party in Congress between 2010 and 2014.

In the Chilean parliamentary election, 2009, UDI held the largest majority in the election of deputies, electing 40 deputies (one third of the House) with 23.04% (1,507,001 votes), and got 21.21% (369,594 votes) in the election of senators. Its bench is the largest obtained by a single party in Chile since 1990. UDI currently has 39 deputies and 8 senators.

Democratic Union

Democratic Union may refer to:

See also

Democratic Union (Italy)

The Democratic Union (Italian: Unione Democratica, UD) was a small social-liberal political party in Italy.

It was founded in February 1996 by Antonio Maccanico (president of the party until 1999), Gerardo Bianco,Willer Bordon and Giorgio Benvenuto, both of who were the members of Democratic Alliance, Valerio Zanone and Giorgio La Malfa. The party was a minor member of The Olive Tree, and formed the Populars for Prodi list with the Italian People's Party for the 1996 general election, electing four deputies and one senator. The party was part of the Prodi I Cabinet, with Maccanico becoming Minister for Communications, and later the D'Alema I Cabinet.

In 1999 the party joined Romano Prodi's new party, the The Democrats.

References

Democratic Union (Guatemala)

The Democratic Union (Unión Democrática) is a political party in Guatemala. At the legislative elections, 9 November 2003, the party won 2.2% of the popular vote and 2 out of 158 seats. In the legislative elections held on 9 September 2007, the party secured 1.41% of the votes in the race for national-list deputies and, save for defections, will have only one seat in the 2008-12 Congress. In the presidential election of the same day, its candidate Manuel Conde Orellana won 0.76% of the popular vote.

Independent Democrat

In U.S. politics an Independent Democrat is an individual who loosely identifies with the ideals of the Democratic Party but chooses not to be a formal member of the party (i.e. chooses to be an independent). Several elected officials, including members of Congress, have identified as Independent Democrats.

History

The first member of the United States House of Representatives to identify as an Independent Democrat was Zadok Casey of Illinois, who served from 1833 to 1843. Casey was a Jacksonian Democrat before becoming an Independent.

In 1848, a candidate for Mayor of Chicago, James Hutchinson Woodworth, labelled himself an Independent Democrat to distance himself from what was at the time a corrupt and disorganized Chicago Democratic party organization; he preferred being described as an Independent Democrat rather than as a Whig as that party was itself experiencing a transition. He won election in his first campaign by an overwhelming majority and then was re-elected for a second term. However his Mayoral political success sealed his departure from any further association with the then Illinois Democratic party. When the Whigs in Illinois became the new Republican party, and he was able to confirm that his Abolitionist ideals would be recognized, he registered as a member of the GOP. He subsequently was elected to the United States House of Representatives from Illinois as a member of the GOP. Woodworth served one term in Congress, and return to a banking career in Chicago that spanned the Civil War era and the Reconstruction.