Americas: There's nothing like success to breed a taste for it. Chile's dramatic shift from left to right in Sunday's election is that of an already prospering country preparing to soar. Word of this will spread far in the region.
Chile's story is an unusual one in Latin America. Ruled by a level-headed, center-left coalition called Concertacion since the end of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship in 1990, its leaders nevertheless pursued free-market policies.
Instead of blaming the gringos and waging class warfare in Che T-shirts, they balanced their budget and respected private property. Instead of squandering a $19 billion state windfall from soaring copper prices, they managed it. They continued Pinochet's free-market privatization of pensions without reflexively opposing its origins, and signed free trade pacts with any nation that asked.
Result: poverty cut by two thirds from 45% to 15%, and per capita income up from $1,400 in 1986 to $15,000 in 2009. This built a tax base for Concertacion to do what it valued: expand social services.
It culminated in Chile's coveted invitation to join the ranks of the most developed and economically responsible countries — the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) — last December, a symbolic membership card to the First World. More>>
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