ABSTRACT
Chile is still undergoing a long-term transition to democracy. The installation of a democratic regime took a whole decade, but democracy now co-exists with the neo-liberal restructuring project implemented by the dictatorship (1973-89). The triumph of democracy signified a change of political regime while preserving the neo-liberal state created by the dictatorship; adopting neo-liberal economic policies; and irreversibly accepting the economic transformations generated by the neo-liberal restructuring of the state sector. Just like other sections of the democratic opposition, the labour movement, here especially the Central Workers’ Union (CUT – Central Unica de Trabajadores), played an important role in resisting the dictatorship. The CUT hoped that the democratization process would be accompanied by a restructuring of the relations between capital, labour and state that were characteristic of the Compromise State (1930-70). The political alliance that facilitated the democratic transition, the ‘Concertación’ of the Parties for Democracy (the Socialist Party, the Christian Democratic Party, the Party for Democracy and the Radical Party) recognized the role of entrepreneurs and other economic groups. These actors had benefited from the privatization of public enterprises, as privileged actors of economic development during the first Concertación government in 1990.
