Chile: The Great Transformation - Tapa dura

Chile is frequently cited as a remarkable success story of neoliberal economic restructuring. In fact, countries around the world are encouraged to follow the Chilean model so that they can reap the extraordinary benefits of rapid growth and expanding export markets associated with the drastic economic reform in Chile. But the Chilean experience is extremely complicated and contradictory. The international discussion on economic restructuring in Latin America often runs on two tracks: one dominated by consultants and scholars from the English-speaking world and another in which Latin Americans talk to each other. This book attempts to bridge the gap. Two outstanding Chilean scholars and activists present an original interpretation of the Chilean experience. They cut through the rhetoric surrounding "the Chilean miracle" and provide an integrated analysis of the process of socioeconomic and political change that transformed their country between 1970 and 1990. In so doing, they discover not only a neoliberal revolution, but a capitalist revolution with roots far deeper than the Pinochet reforms. The book provides a valuable resource for people around the world who hope to understand the principal "success story" of Latin American adjustment. Copublished with the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development.

Javier Martinez is a Chilean sociologist and political scientist and a founding member of the independent Santiago research institute SUR. Alvaro Diaz is a Chilean economist and executive director of the Program on Technological Innovation and Development, Chilean Ministry of the Economy, and a research associate at SUR.