1. The Fall of Chile
- Author:
- Axel Kaiser
- Publication Date:
- 10-2020
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Following the failed Marxist experiment of Chilean President Salvador Allende, a free‐market revolution led by the so‐called Chicago Boys in the 1970s and 1980s created the conditions necessary for the country to experience an “economic miracle” that captured worldwide attention.1 As Nobel laureate economist Gary Becker (1997) put it, Chile became “an economic role model for the whole underdeveloped world.” This performance, said Becker, “became still more impressive when the government was transformed into a democracy.” Along the same lines, Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman argued that the reforms introduced by the Chicago Boys “proved highly successful and were preserved intact when Chile finally returned to democracy in 1989” (Krugman 2008: 31). Indeed, from 1990 to 2010 a left‐wing coalition called “Concertación” came to power. Despite having been comprised of opponents to the military dictatorship and by many former members of Salvador Allende’s government, Concertación kept in place the foundations of the free‐market system. A pragmatic view prevailed, leading to the recognition and adoption of the economic legacy of the Pinochet years.
- Topic:
- Economics, Reform, Neoliberalism, Ideology, Crisis Management, Transparency, and Free Market
- Political Geography:
- South America, Chile, and United States of America