History, Economics and the Policy-makers

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is not to present an exhaustive picture of Chilean economic history, but rather to examine some crucial aspects of it, in order to highlight the specificity of certain national characteristics in relation to the rest of Latin America. We also look at economic performance in the 1980s, and at the policy-makers involved, with a view to explaining why the policies recommended by the so-called ‘Chicago boys’ were not only adopted by Pinochet, but also maintained and defended even after serious economic problems in the 1970s and 1980s, and then, to a large extent maintained again, this time by the Aylwin government.