Transnational Capitalist Classes and the State in Chile

Abstract

ABSTRACT Chile is one of the first countries to adopt, what later became known as neoliberal policies, and is therefore one of the most cited examples in critical IPE literature. The adoption of these reforms in Chile tended to be explained largely as an outcome of interplay between transnational ideas/culture embodied in Chicago-trained economists and domestic coercion (armed forces). Far less attention was paid to the transformation of domestic material interests and the complex domestic legitimation process which involved material concessions. The article pays attention to the emergence and strengthening of transnationally oriented fractions of capital within Chile during the dictatorship and their articulation within the state apparatus. It shows that internationalisation of Chile was a highly contested process, which although occurred in the context of the emergence of powerful global transformations and forces, essentially depended on the outcome of struggles within the domestic setting.