In the past few years, Chile has become the stage for widespread demonstrations. This introduction situates this recent upswing of social movements in contemporary scholarly debates. It does so by offering an overview of the intertwined relationships between social movements, the state, and political parties in Latin America’s history. The introduction then outlines some of the theoretical challenges that derive from this. It is argued that only a framework centered on the interactions between social movements and institutional actors can help us understand the shift to contentious politics that Chile is experiencing and its impacts. Grounded on this approach, the chapter offers an overview of these interactions in Chile’s recent history. The chapter concludes by outlining the structure and the content of the edited volume.