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The Democratic Road to Socialism In September 1970, Salvador Allende Gossens—a lifelong Marxist and leader of the Unidad Popular (Popular Unity) coalition—was elected president of Chile. His victory, achieved through free elections and within the bounds of a long democratic tradition, made him the first Marxist in the Western Hemisphere to come to power through the ballot box. Allende’s project, which he called La vía chilena al socialismo (“the Chilean road to socialism”), sought to prove that socialism could coexist with constitutional democracy and individual freedoms. Chile in 1970 was polarized but institutionally robust. The Christian Democrats under Eduardo Frei…