Class Transformations in Chile's Capitalist Revolution

• Published in: Socialist register 2015-01, Vol.51
• Main Author: Clark, Timothy David
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Capitalism; Chile; Dictatorship; Presidents; Public Policy; Revolutions; Social Class; Social Movements; Social Policy
• ISSN: 0081-0606

This analysis of the reconstruction of the class foundations initiated by the Pinochet military dictatorship will begin with an examination of the reconstitution of the capitalist class, on the one hand, and the working and middle classes, on the other. The essay will conclude with a brief consideration of the faultlines that threaten the political and economic stability and reproduction of the neoliberal order, as well as the social movements that have emerged to challenge the legacies of the dictatorship and the prospects for a deeper transformation of Chilean society. Although the bulk of the analysis focuses upon the Pinochet dictatorship, public policies and processes of class transformation will be traced through the post-authoritarian period to the present. The underlying assumption is that the centre-left coalition that controlled the presidency from 1990 to 2010 represented continuity with the public policies and class transformations of the dictatorship to a far greater degree than it did change. Although there were certainly policy divergences, such as the capital controls of the 1990s, and policy improvements, such as the substantial increases in social expenditures, the centre-left governments reproduced - and in some cases even deepened - the basic macroeconomic and social policies of the Pinochet years and their concomitant effects on the processes of class formation. Adapted from the source document.