ABSTRACT
In the current context of searching for alternatives to the questioned pension system in Chile, the present work was aimed, based on the review of original sources, to account for the historical trajectory of the mutualism. A new interpretation is proposed, emphasizing cultural, social, and economic factors which explain both its expansion moments and crisis. The central hypothesis is that the most critical moments of mutualism in the 20th century were those linked first to the Great Depression (1929 onwards) and the economic crisis of 1982. The latter has turned out to be even more difficult to overcome, due to sociocultural changes that were promoted during the civic-military dictatorship, which exacerbated individualism instead of collectivism.
