The Legacy of the Pinochet Regime in Chile

Chile has experienced more than thirty years of democracy at the shadow of the seventeen-year dictatorship led by Augusto Pinochet (1973–1990). This chapter provides an overview of the dictatorial legacies with an emphasis on the distribution of economic and political power, as viewed from the most recent literature in economics. We also describe the waves of discontent which have attempted to suppress the most important legacies during the past twenty years. We end with a discussion of the current path of institutional change that could put Pinochet’s legacy to an end. This version: August, 2021. Chapter prepared for the book “Roots of Underdevelopment: A New Economic (and Political) History of Latin America and the Caribbean” edited by Felipe Valencia. We would like to thank Felipe Aldunate, María Angélica Bautista, José Ignacio Cuesta, Francisco Gallego, Luis Martínez, Pablo Muñoz, Francisco Urzúa, and Felipe Vial for collaborations in related research. We also thank Francisco Eslava, Nicolás Lillo, Cristóbal Otero, Fernanda Rojas, and Felipe Valencia for comments and suggestions. Fondecyt (projects 11170258 and 1210239) and the Economic History Association provided generous financial support for this and related research.