The challenges of implementing the Chilean Way to Socialism: impact analyses of three economic proposals

Abstract

This article aims to establish a relationship between the social-political impact of three economic proposals by Unidad Popular and the challenges faced by Salvador Allende’s government to implement the Chilean Way to Socialism. For that purpose it makes use of Unidad Popular’s Government Program and interviews with Allende’s ex-ministers. It also analyzes the proposals of copper nationalization, agrarian reform and the socialization of private properties, since they reflect the economic actions of an anti-capitalist ideology. Each proposal had a different yet complementary social, political and economic impact that influenced in different ways the performance of the implementation of socialism in Chile in the 1970s. The copper privatization had a low impact, the agrarian reform a medium one and the socialization a high impact. The latter was the most sensitive due to its accentuated ideological character. The copper privatization was widely accepted, possibly due to the relationship between mining and the Chilean identity. The agrarian reform experienced social and political obstacles that hindered its full execution, but was already present in the Christian-Democrat project and its direct impacts were restricted to the countryside. The constitution of the social area, formed by socialized companies, could not be implemented. The actions were limited to the existing laws that granted the individual right to private property of the means of production. Nevertheless, the expropriations carried out worsened the social and political conflicts, increased the discontentment among the elites and hampered the continuation of the Chilean Way to Socialism. 

Key words: Chilean Way to Socialism, Salvador Allende, left wing government.