Chile: Progress And Its Discontents | The Economist

12/04/12

Chile: Progress and its discontents | The Economist

Chile

Progress and its discontents
A popular student rebellion shows that, as Chileans become better off, they want the government to guarantee a fairer society. Politicians are struggling to respond
Apr 14th 2012 | SANTIAGO | from the print edition

IN A ritual marking the start of the

academic year, last month thestreets of Santiago were full of students dressed in colourful combinations of rags and body paint politely seeking donations from passers-by in the late-summer sunshine. Many of their predecessors had spent their summer holidays swotting, having devoted last year to occupying classrooms and taking to the streets in their tens and hundreds of thousands, in sometimes violent demonstrations to demandfree and better higher education. This mass
www.economist.com/node/21552566/print 1/10

12/04/12

Chile: Progress and its discontents | The Economist

popular protest, and the huge public sympathy it aroused, took the centre-right government of Sebastián Piñera by surprise, leaving it floundering. The habit of protest seems to be catching on. Thousands of residents of Aysén, a remote regionin Patagonia, have blocked roads to demand cheaper petrol and in protest over a new fishing law. Similar regional protests have occurred in Calama, a mining area in the northern desert, and (last year) in Punta Arenas. Such protests have been commonplace for years in Peru, a poorer and more diverse country. But Chile? In the two decades since General Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship gave way todemocracy, Chile has stood out in Latin America for its rapid growth, social progress, political stability and relatively robust institutions. Now Chile’s political leaders are wondering if they are seeing a popular rebellion against “the model”, as some call the free-market policies bequeathed by Pinochet and left largely intact by his successors. Two years ago Mr Piñera, a billionaire businessman,led the centre-right Alliance to power after two decades of rule by the centre-left Concertación coalition. When his government organised a successful rescue of 33 trapped miners in October 2010, his approval rating soared to 63%, says Adimark, a pollster. Thanks mostly to the students, it is now just 29%. Part of the problem is that Mr Piñera has proved to be an inept politician—a view notconfined to the opposition. The government was slow to respond to the student protests. The president zigzagged between talking tough and giving in, undercutting his ministers in the process. The latest casualty was the energy minister, who resigned over the mishandling of the Aysén protest. The public dislikes Mr Piñera’s arrogance. “He has convinced Chileans that he’s very intelligent, but he hasn’tconvinced them he has a heart,” says Arturo Fontaine of the Centre for Public Studies (CEP), a liberal think-tank. But the public is equally dismissive of the Concertación. At just 21%, its approval rating is even lower than the governing Alliance (24%), according to Adimark. Rather, the emblematic figure of Chile’s year of discontent is Camila Vallejo, a 23-year-old Communist student leader.www.economist.com/node/21552566/print 2/10

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Chile: Progress and its discontents | The Economist

Having been an irrelevance on the margin of Chile’s two-party system, the Communist Party enjoys “more influence than at any time in the past 20 years,” says Guillermo Teillier, its president. What makes this collapse of public confidence in the system odder is that in many ways Chilecontinues to thrive. The economy is growing by 6% a year, and with virtually full employment, wages are rising equally fast. The government has done a reasonable job of reconstruction after a severe earthquake two years ago. Less poor, still unequal In opinion polls the students’ demands enjoy the support of 70% of respondents, even if their sometimes disorderly methods attract the disapproval of a...