This paper examines the history of the LGBT + movement in Chile, the opposition to LGBT + rights, and the general state of public opinion. This should set us up to see how strong of an actor these social movement organizations, what their desires are, and how well equipped they are to take on the opposition. Second, we will consider the legal status quo of same‐sex unions. Does the Constitution take a stand on it or must we look elsewhere in the law to see how marriage is defined? Moreover, this should also tell us if we can use all three branches of government to change the law. The next section of the paper will methodically examine the power and preferences of actors in all three branches of government. Who has the power to change the law for same‐sex partnership recognition? Finally, this paper explains why the presidency played a key role in passing civil union legislation, but there is still reason to be skeptical that marriage or adoption rights will be recognized anytime soon.
Research in political science often entails investigating the attitudes and behaviors of actors and groups. Usually it is clear who the subjects of our study are, especially when dealing with governmental actors (for example, a person either is a member of Congress or they are not). However, when our analysis shifts to society, this often becomes more problematic as we use fixed labels (black, criminal, lesbian, terrorist, and so on) to study groups who are much more amorphous because of their socially constructed nature, groups whom I call "essentially contested subjects." The power of assigning and using these labels can have important implications on who is included within a study and what knowledge we know/create about them. This article will discuss the ontological and epistemological implications of the methods we use to study essentially contested subjects through an examination of published work on two such groups: homosexuals and terrorists.
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