ABSTRACT
In 1939 Salvador Allende, at the time Chile's Minister of Health, Social Security, and Social Assistance, published a book entitled La realidad médico-socialchilena (Chile's Medico-Social Reality). The year before, Pedro Aguirre Cerda, a member of the centrist Radical Party, had won presidential elections as a representative of the popular front coalition of which the Socialist Allende was a part. The popular fronts, which held power from late 1938 to approximately 1948, implemented policies aimed at bettering the living conditions of poor Chileans, incorporating them into civic life, and promoting Chile's economic development. Reflecting these popular front goals, Allende's book expressed the widespread desire for state-led social change. But the Socialist Allende also believed the state should act with as well as for organized popular sectors. La realidad médico social emphasized the desires of the poor, their contributions to national development, and the need to recognize those contributions by ensuring their welfare. From his perspective as a physician and as minister, Allende sketched out new health, social security, and welfare policies that would promote the popular fronts' policies. 1
