Since the beginning of the 1990s, the notion of governability is ever-present in scientific, political and media discourses in Chile. How has this notion - initially linked to conservative streams within American political science – come to play a central role in the legitimating discourses of the Chilean political class? This rhetorical success constitutes an interesting case study to understand the role of cognitive frames in the appropriation/translation of imported ideas. Our hypothesis is that the importation of this term has filled an extraordinary void of meaning since the advent of the “consensus democracy”. In the context of a restricted democracy full of authoritarian enclaves, the notion of governability has played a role of ordering discourse: by articulating an acceptable narrative of "modern" democracy, in which the capacity to govern only emanates from a technocratic and stable government, the term gives the appearance of solving the contradictions of democratic transition.