ABSTRACT
Like other sectors of the Chilean economy, hydropower has been managed under the free-market neoliberal model imposed by the military government (1973-1990) through water reform (1981) and electricity reform (1982). One of the main arguments behind the neoliberal reforms was the need to remove the ideological content from both water management and electric generation so that markets can act naturally, neutrally, and therefore apolitically in pursuit of an efficient allocation of resources. The paradox is that this argument is itself highly ideologized, and ignores the institutional frameworks of markets.
