Socioenvironmental Limits to Development in Chile

• In Event: Conflict and Social Cohesion in Chile: Socioeconomic, Political and Educational Perspectives

Abstract

During recent decades Chile has repeatedly been held up as Latin Americans poster child both in terms of its economic growth and social development. However, as many experts have criticised in the past, the economic growth that Chile relies on to improve its social indicators is principally based on exports from a few natural resource sectors, such as mining, agriculture, forestry and aquiculture. Moreover, the composition of Chilean exports has changed very little over the last 30 to 40 years. Recently, environmental constraints, social protests from the Chilean middle class and the judicialisation of large investment projects have complicated the development of Chile's traditional export sectors as well as of its infrastructure. These environmental, social, and judicial constraints are now forcing the government to look for new approaches to development. These include the diversification of Chile's productive sectors, a renewed emphasis on the negative socio-economic effects of inequality, and political reform. This paper will examine the constraints of Chile's growth model, and potential new development strategies that could help overcome them.

Author

• Kirsten Sehnbruch, Universidad de Chile