Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The Chile Project investigates what the author describes as "Chile's paradox": the nation's intricate relationship with the neoliberal economic and political framework.The study begins by tracing the adoption of neoliberal policies during Augusto Pinochet's regime and their subsequent evolution under democratic administrations, culminating in the 2019 insurrection and the 2021 election of President Gabriel Boric, committed to dismantling those neoliberal policies, as these events reflect widespread dissatisfaction with the neoliberal model.Sebastián Edwards, a Chilean economist and professor at UCLA since 1981, specialises in the economic development of emerging regions, particularly in Latin America.He is a leading authority on populism, significantly contributing to its theoretical understanding by framing it as an economic phenomenon; indeed, two of his works, Macroeconomics of Populism in Latin America (1989, co-edited with Rudi Dornbusch) and Left Behind: Latin America and the False Promise of Populism (2010), are pivotal on the subject.In The Chile Project, Edwards employs an "analytical narrative, " integrating archival research, quantitative data analysis, graphical representations, and statistical inquiry, which is applied to a chronological sequence of events from 1955 to 2022.The theoretical aspect of neoliberalism is addressed in both the book's introduction and appendix.In the introductory chapter, Edwards defines neoliberalism as "a set of beliefs and policy recommendations that emphasise the use of market mechanisms to solve most of society's problems and needs" (p.14).These needs include education, pensions, healthcare, and transportation, with minimal reliance on economic planning.
Source: Competitio
Author: Juan Cristóbal Demian
Institution: Corvinus University of Budapest
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4408952117