Chile The Great Transformation

by Martinez, Javier; Diaz, Alvaro

• ISBN13: 9780815754770
• ISBN10: 0815754779
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-05-01
• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press

Summary

Chile is frequently cited as a remarkable success story of neoliberal economic restructuring. In fact, countries around the world are encouraged to follow the Chilean model so that they can reap the extraordinary benefits of rapid growth and expanding export markets associated with the drastic economic reform in Chile. But the Chilean experience is extremely complicated and contradictory. The international discussion on economic restructuring in Latin America often runs on two tracks: one dominated by consultants and scholars from the English-speaking world and another in which Latin Americans talk to each other. This book attempts to bridge the gap. Two outstanding Chilean scholars and activists present an original interpretation of the Chilean experience. They cut through the rhetoric surrounding "the Chilean miracle" and provide an integrated analysis of the process of socioeconomic and political change that transformed their country between 1970 and 1990. In so doing, they discover not only a neoliberal revolution, but a capitalist revolution with roots far deeper than the Pinochet reforms. The book provides a valuable resource for people around the world who hope to understand the principal "success story" of Latin American adjustment.Copublished with the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development.

Author Biography

Javier Martinez is a Chilean political sociologist, advisor to democratic social movements in Latin America, and a founding member of the independent Santiago research institute SUR Alvaro Diaz, a Chilean economist and sociologist, is executive director of the Program on Technological Innovation and Development, Chilean Ministry of the Economy, and a research associate at SUR

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
Politics: From Dictatorship to Democracy	p. 8
Instability	p. 9
The Terror	p. 12
The Uprising	p. 18
Democratization	p. 33
The Economy: From the State to the Market	p. 41
The State and Elites	p. 42
Rupture and Continuity, 1964-90	p. 44
The Background of Free-Market Reform in Chile	p. 45
The Main Phases of Political Economy, 1973-90	p. 47
Principal Neoliberal Reforms, 1973-90	p. 49
The Liberation and Expansion of Market Forces	p. 56
The Myth of the "Subsidiary" State	p. 65
Institutional Transformations	p. 67
The Concentration of Power and Income	p. 73
The Actors: From Classes to Elites	p. 75
The Business Gremios	p. 76
A Civilian Technocracy: The "Chicago Boys"	p. 81
The New Financial-Economic Groups	p. 87
A Corporate Interlude	p. 94
The Decline of the Elite	p. 98
Restructuring and the New Working Classes	p. 101
The New Waged Employment	p. 102
The New Informality	p. 110
Patterns of Change in the Services Sector	p. 115
The New Social Character of Poverty	p. 124
A Capitalist Revolution	p. 130
The Neoliberal Reorientation of Previous Reforms	p. 131
The Role of the Elites: From Revolution to Moderation	p. 136
Structures, Movements, and Social Actors	p. 138
The 1990s: Waiting for the New Actors	p. 141
Notes	p. 143
Index	p. 153
Tables
Basic Economic Indicators, Selected Years, 1974-95
Phases of Neoliberal Economic Policy, 1973-90
Integration into the World Economy, Selected Years, 1974-95
Population in Waged Employment, by Sector, Selected Periods, 1976-92
Urban and Rural Waged Work, Selected Periods, 1976-92
Average Annual Rates of Growth in the Urban Informal Sector, Selected Periods, 1960-90
Estimation of Spurious Service-Sector Employment, Selected Years, 1970-90
Employment in the Nonfinancial Public Administrative Sector, Selected Years, 1976-90
Employment in Financial Services, Selected Years, 1976-90
Figures
Per Capita GDP, 1970-95
Waged Workers, as Percentage of Employed Population, 1976-94
Employers and Waged Workers, 1976-94
Urban Informal Sector, 1976-94
Employment in the Services Sector, 1970-94
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