Politics and Social Forces in Chilean Development

Politics and Social Forces in Chilean Development
Author: James Petras
Publisher: University of California Press
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2021-01-08
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0520358066

Chile, which suffering from many of the same social and economic problems that afflict other Latin American countries, has enjoyed remarkable political stability. With the exception of one brief interlude, Chile has been governed by elected rules for half a century. The feature of Chilean development that explains its exceptional nature in contrast to the rest of Latin America is the special role of the bureaucracy, which functions as a broker for the conflicting demands of both the new and the traditional groups. Yet a strong dichotomy is evident between the entrepreneurial and bureaucratic elites, which have benefited and participated in the dominant society, and the peasantry, which has been largely exploited and excluded from the polity. Petras finds that the attempts to develop a dynamic industrial society in Chile have so far ailed. Chronic problems of slow economic growth and a rigid social system have been managed through a delicate system of political balances involving established parties and interest groups. While this arrangement has contributed to Chile's stability, it has also served to delay the entry of the peasantry and urban lower class into the polity, and as these groups do enter the political arena, they do so as radicals, increasingly hostile to established leaders and institutions. Working with fresh data, Petras considers virtually every aspect of Chile's social, political, and economic development, including industrialization and the roles of the right wing, the middle class, the peasantry, and the bureaucracy; and he gives detailed consideration to the programs and behavior of the Popular Action Front (FRAP) and the Christian Democratic party. In his final chapter,the author hazards a number of predictions concerning the future course of Chilean politics. He anticipates that the present trend toward basic social change will continue and that this will include limitation of the powers and prerogatives of the rich, a greater role for the government in planning and directing the economy, and some outright expropriation. In the long run, a realignment of major politcal forces is probably, with the likely result that opposition to reform will increase. The heavy involvement of North American firms in the Chilean copper-mining industry could lead to a conflict between a national-popular government in the United States. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1969.

Politics and Social Forces in Chilean Development

Politics and Social Forces in Chilean Development
Author: James Petras
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2023-04-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0520311701

Chile, which suffering from many of the same social and economic problems that afflict other Latin American countries, has enjoyed remarkable political stability. With the exception of one brief interlude, Chile has been governed by elected rules for half a century. The feature of Chilean development that explains its exceptional nature in contrast to the rest of Latin America is the special role of the bureaucracy, which functions as a broker for the conflicting demands of both the new and the traditional groups. Yet a strong dichotomy is evident between the entrepreneurial and bureaucratic elites, which have benefited and participated in the dominant society, and the peasantry, which has been largely exploited and excluded from the polity. Petras finds that the attempts to develop a dynamic industrial society in Chile have so far ailed. Chronic problems of slow economic growth and a rigid social system have been managed through a delicate system of political balances involving established parties and interest groups. While this arrangement has contributed to Chile's stability, it has also served to delay the entry of the peasantry and urban lower class into the polity, and as these groups do enter the political arena, they do so as radicals, increasingly hostile to established leaders and institutions. Working with fresh data, Petras considers virtually every aspect of Chile's social, political, and economic development, including industrialization and the roles of the right wing, the middle class, the peasantry, and the bureaucracy; and he gives detailed consideration to the programs and behavior of the Popular Action Front (FRAP) and the Christian Democratic party. In his final chapter,the author hazards a number of predictions concerning the future course of Chilean politics. He anticipates that the present trend toward basic social change will continue and that this will include limitation of the powers and prerogatives of the rich, a greater role for the government in planning and directing the economy, and some outright expropriation. In the long run, a realignment of major politcal forces is probably, with the likely result that opposition to reform will increase. The heavy involvement of North American firms in the Chilean copper-mining industry could lead to a conflict between a national-popular government in the United States. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1969.

Social Revolt in Chile

Social Revolt in Chile
Author: Carlos Peña
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 103
Release: 2022-01-13
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1000559270

This book investigates why Chile suddenly confronted a violent social revolt in October 2019, after almost thirty years of political stability, during which time the country was broadly regarded as Latin America’s most successful nation. Since democratic restoration in 1990, Chile’s relatively high levels of political stability, increasing prosperity and social modernisation have stood out in a region shaken by political convulsion and economic malaise. In early October 2019, President Sebastián Piñera confidently claimed that Chile represented a true ‘oasis’ of political stability and economic vitality in Latin America. However, just weeks later, the announcement of a small increase in the price of Santiago’s underground transport system unleashed an unprecedented wave of violent anti-government protests in the country, with protestors ultimately demanding Piñera’s resignation and the end of neoliberalism and the 1980 Constitution, among many other demands. This book analyses the causes of Chile’s socio-political upheaval, arguing that the fast social and economic modernisation produced by the neoliberal system led to a series of destabilising socio-political processes in the country. At a time when much analysis of the October uprising tends to be superficial or polarised on ideological grounds, this book provides a much-needed sociological and institutional analysis of the crisis. It will be an important read for scholars of Latin American politics and development, as well as those with a broader interest in state legitimacy, social movements and political contestation against neoliberalism.

Struggle in the Countryside

Struggle in the Countryside
Author: Brian Loveman
Publisher: Bloomington : Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 488
Release: 1976
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Monograph on rural area politics, social conflict and land reform in Chile from 1919 to 1973 - comments on land tenure, labour legislation, rural area trade unions and political aspects from 1931 to 1964, social change, agrarian reform, etc. Maps, bibliography pp. 393 to 423, maps, references and statistical tables.

The Political Economy of Peripheral Growth

The Political Economy of Peripheral Growth
Author: José Miguel Ahumada
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2019-03-23
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3030107434

This book provides a political economy perspective on Chile’s contemporary economic development, explaining the different stages of Chile’s neoliberal pattern of economic integration into the global economy from 1973 to 2015. Three key explanatory variables are considered: the evolution of business-state relations, US geopolitical interest in the region through the waves of trade agreements, and the political impact of the dynamics of inflows and outflows of financial capital. Although Chile is typically considered to be a successful case of a free market economy, this book presents an alternative narrative of Chile’s growth through using a Latin American Structuralist political economy perspective. While it recognises the positive results in terms of growth, it also emphasises the lack of dynamic sources for long-term development, which embeds the economy into short-term booms followed by periods of stagnation.

Power and Impotence

Power and Impotence
Author: Fabio Luis Barbosa dos Santos
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 359
Release: 2019-12-09
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9004419055

Fabio Luis Barbosa dos Santos delves into the history of South America to understand the rise and fall of the so-called 'progressive governments'. In the wake of mobilizations against neoliberalism in the 1990s, most countries elected presidents identified with change. However, less than twenty years after Hugo Chávez's victory, this trend seems to be reversed. The times of Lula are now Bolsonaro's. What happened? Supported by an extensive bibliography and hundreds of interviews, the author addresses each South American country, including those who did not elect progressives, in addition to Cuba. The national focus is enriched by an analysis of regional integration attempts, providing a detailed and necessary recent history of the subcontinent. Originally published in Portuguese as Uma história da onda progressista sul-americana (1998-2016) by Elefante, São Paulo, 2018. Fabio Luis Barbosa dos Santos mergulha na história da América do Sul para compreender a ascensão e queda dos chamados ‘governos progressistas’. Na esteira de mobilizações contra o neoliberalismo nos anos 1990, a maioria dos países da região elegeu presidentes identificados com a mudança. Contudo, menos de vinte anos depois da vitória de Hugo Chávez, essa onda chega ao fim. Os tempos de Lula agora são de Bolsonaro. O que aconteceu? Apoiado em extensa bibliografia e centenas de entrevistas, o autor aborda cada país, inclusive os que não elegeram progressistas, além de Cuba. O enfoque nacional é enriquecido por uma análise das tentativas de integração regional, oferecendo uma detalhada e necessária história recente do subcontinente.

Authoritarianism and the Elite Origins of Democracy

Authoritarianism and the Elite Origins of Democracy
Author: Michael Albertus
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 326
Release: 2018-01-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 110819642X

This book argues that - in terms of institutional design, the allocation of power and privilege, and the lived experiences of citizens - democracy often does not restart the political game after displacing authoritarianism. Democratic institutions are frequently designed by the outgoing authoritarian regime to shield incumbent elites from the rule of law and give them an unfair advantage over politics and the economy after democratization. Authoritarianism and the Elite Origins of Democracy systematically documents and analyzes the constitutional tools that outgoing authoritarian elites use to accomplish these ends, such as electoral system design, legislative appointments, federalism, legal immunities, constitutional tribunal design, and supermajority thresholds for change. The study provides wide-ranging evidence for these claims using data that spans the globe and dates from 1800 to the present. Albertus and Menaldo also conduct detailed case studies of Chile and Sweden. In doing so, they explain why some democracies successfully overhaul their elite-biased constitutions for more egalitarian social contracts.

Making Politics Work for Development

Making Politics Work for Development
Author: World Bank
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2016-07-14
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1464807744

Governments fail to provide the public goods needed for development when its leaders knowingly and deliberately ignore sound technical advice or are unable to follow it, despite the best of intentions, because of political constraints. This report focuses on two forces—citizen engagement and transparency—that hold the key to solving government failures by shaping how political markets function. Citizens are not only queueing at voting booths, but are also taking to the streets and using diverse media to pressure, sanction and select the leaders who wield power within government, including by entering as contenders for leadership. This political engagement can function in highly nuanced ways within the same formal institutional context and across the political spectrum, from autocracies to democracies. Unhealthy political engagement, when leaders are selected and sanctioned on the basis of their provision of private benefits rather than public goods, gives rise to government failures. The solutions to these failures lie in fostering healthy political engagement within any institutional context, and not in circumventing or suppressing it. Transparency, which is citizen access to publicly available information about the actions of those in government, and the consequences of these actions, can play a crucial role by nourishing political engagement.

Social Forces and States

Social Forces and States
Author: Judith Teichman
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2012-06-13
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0804782547

With the failure of market reform to generate sustained growth in many countries of the Global South, poverty reduction has become an urgent moral and political issue in the last several decades. In practice, considerable research shows that high levels of inequality are likely to produce high levels of criminal and political violence. On the road to development, states cannot but grapple with the challenges posed by poverty and wealth distribution. Social Forces and States explains the reasons behind distinct distributional and poverty outcomes in three countries: South Korea, Chile, and Mexico. South Korea has successfully reduced poverty and has kept inequality low. Chile has reduced poverty but inequality remains high. Mexico has confronted higher levels of poverty and high inequality than either of the other countries. Judith Teichman takes a comparative historical approach, focusing upon the impact of the interaction between social forces and states. Distinct from approaches that explain social well-being through a comparative examination of social welfare regimes, this book probes more deeply, incorporating a careful consideration of how historical contexts and political struggles shaped very different development trajectories, welfare arrangements, and social possibilities.

Has Latin American Inequality Changed Direction?

Has Latin American Inequality Changed Direction?
Author: Luis Bértola
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 419
Release: 2017-01-25
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3319446215

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book brings together a range of ideas and theories to arrive at a deeper understanding of inequality in Latin America and its complex realities. To so, it addresses questions such as: What are the origins of inequality in Latin America? How can we create societies that are more equal in terms of income distribution, gender equality and opportunities? How can we remedy the social divide that is making Latin America one of the most unequal regions on earth? What are the roles played by market forces, institutions and ideology in terms of inequality? In this book, a group of global experts gathered by the Institute for the Integration of Latin America and the Caribbean (INTAL), part of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), show readers how various types of inequality, such as economical, educational, racial and gender inequality have been practiced in countries like Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Mexico and many others through the centuries. Presenting new ideas, new evidence, and new methods, the book subsequently analyzes how to move forward with second-generation reforms that lay the foundations for more egalitarian societies. As such, it offers a valuable and insightful guide for development economists, historians and Latin American specialists alike, as well as students, educators, policymakers and all citizens with an interest in development, inequality and the Latin American region.