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Chileans learned the right lessons after the Pinochet era [1]

['Richard Feinberg', 'David R. Mares', 'Harold A. Trinkunas', 'Ted Piccone', 'Richard E. Feinberg', 'Adrianna Pita', 'Michael E. O Hanlon', 'Juan Carlos Pinzón', 'Vanda Felbab-Brown']

Date: 2019-11-18

In 1973, amid mounting social tensions, property seizures by Marxist-led parties, strikes by conservative transportation unions, and massive street demonstrations by both the political right and left, Chilean politicians failed to reach across the aisle to stabilize democratic institutions. The armed forces intervened; the then-President Salvador Allende committed suicide; and a brutal military dictatorship led by General Augusto Pinochet endured for 17 dark years.

Mindful of the lessons of history, last week Chilean politicians from across the political spectrum signed a monumental accord to, finally, discard the constitution first promulgated during the Pinochet era and draft a new governing charter.

The national political accord was a direct response to over three weeks of intense street demonstrations, marked by masked youths burning public symbols and sacking retail outlets, as well as a massive march of over one million Chileans in the capital Santiago (roughly one in every four adults in the city). It was the largest public gathering in the nation’s history.

Economic ups and downs

The street demonstrations owed more to social media than to established organizations. At the heart of the protests were the nation’s youth, the high school and university students that have traditionally spearheaded Chilean political movements. For these youngsters, their parents and grandparents had grown too complacent, too timid, too fearful that political struggles might lead to excessive polarization and a repetition of the breakdown and repression of 1973.

Chilean youth argued that this time, it could be different. Since 1973, high human rights standards — nationally and across South America — have become mainstream, tying the hands of the national police and military. The Cold War, with its extreme ideological polarization, is a distant memory. While Chile is now divided over social policies, there is broad agreement on maintaining the basic tenets of democratic capitalism. Many Chileans also accept that income distribution has become too unequal and that the social safety net under the poor should be bolstered.

The Chilean economy has performed brilliantly over the past three decades, expanding an average of 5% per year. The sprawling upper-class suburbs of Santiago, with their shiny glass skyscrapers, million-dollar residential condominiums, luxury retail outlets, and countless fine-dining options rival those in any globalized cosmopolitan city.

The fruits of growth have trickled down, with the poverty rate falling from 40% in 1990 to under 10% today. Enrollment rates in institutions of higher education top those of most highly developed nations, and some health indicators surpass those of the United States. Life expectancy at birth has risen from 74 years in 1990 to 80 years today.

But growth has slowed in the last five years and the cost of living has risen. The out-of-pocket costs of education and health have left many households burdened with oppressive debts, and retirement pensions have failed to keep pace. It is a classic case of frustrated expectations, of an emerging middle class that feared it would never own one of those luxury condos. Worse, people feared they could fall back into the poverty of their grandparents.

Chilean politics has long been polarized between an extreme free-market right and left-leaning social democrats and socialists. Center-left governments have introduced a raft of social programs benefiting the middle classes and the poor, but the political right has maintained key elements of its “neo-liberal model” favoring the private provision of physical infrastructure and social services.

The right’s economic model was enshrined in the 1980 Pinochet-era constitution. Economic hegemony was attributed to the private sector, often subsidized by government financial transfers. The poor have remained dependent upon public schools and health clinics, of mixed quality at best, while the middle classes have to pay for privatized, higher-quality social services. Toll roads, even water resources, are licensed to private providers who charge premium rates.

Meanwhile, a series of highly publicized scandals revealed collusion among oligopolistic firms — and between public and private figures —to fix prices of basic necessities such as medicines and toilet paper. The legitimacy and credibility of the political and economic elites plummeted in public opinion polls.

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[1] Url: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2019/11/18/chileans-learned-the-right-lessons-after-the-pinochet-era/

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