While Dan Pastor '03 was walking down the Street, he found out he'd soon be flying down to Chile with the support of the Martin Dale '53 Fellowship.
Pastor, a politics major, discovered he had won the fellowship last month when Associate Dean of the College Clair Fowler happened to see him, Pastor said.
He was shocked. "This is a project that I've been wanting to do, and now I'll be able to do it," Pastor said yesterday.
The $25,000 award funds an independent yearlong project following graduation.
Pastor has previously won a Truman scholarship.
He plans to do a historical study of Chile's Pinochet period and the state's current constitution, which was created by the military government.
Pinochet legacy
Provisions in the constitution "preserve military influence and what I claim is a military veto over civilian decisions," Pastor said.
Chile's president, for instance, cannot remove the commander-in-chief of the military, which Pastor said poses a problem for a democratic nation.
Chile transitioned to democracy when Augusto Pinochet stepped down from power in 1990, following an election.
The "binomial" election system, set up by the former dictatorship, has electoral districts like U.S. congressional districts, Pastor said, but allows for one-third of the votes to take one-half of the districts' seats.
As such, the country's political right has been able to keep the constitution unchanged.
Pastor spent his junior spring studying abroad in Chile and wrote his junior paper on Chile's election system.
Because little is known about the system, Pastor said he talked to Chilean military officials and developed a theory of who wrote the electoral system and why.
His senior thesis — advised by Professor Kent Eaton — investigates how a successful dictatorship can relinquish power and constrain future democratic governments.
Initiative
Outside of the classroom, Pastor has been active in the Program in Latin American Studies and has volunteered as a Spanish translator at the Princeton Medical Center.
He has also served on the Council of the Princeton University Community.
Pastor and his roommate, Allen Taylor '03, started Princeton in Latin America a program that gives graduating seniors yearlong fellowships to work for nonprofits or in public service in Latin America.
The program may send four graduates abroad this year, Pastor said.
The program is sponsored by the Wilson School, the Program in Latin American Studies, the Council on International Studies and the Class of 1969 Community Service Fund.
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