He Made His Country Rich, but Something Has Gone
Wrong with the System
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/12/opinion/international-world/singapore-autocracy-democracy.html
While established democracies do better economically than autocracies overall, the handful of autocrats who have focused on economic growth — rather than their own Swiss bank accounts — have managed to outperform fledgling democracies, according to Ronald Gilson, professor emeritus of law and business at Columbia University, who co-wrote a 2011 paper, “Economically Benevolent Dictators: Lessons for Developing Democracies.” Chile under Augusto Pinochet, South Korea under Park Chung-hee and China under Deng Xiaoping stand out as countries that achieved wholesale economic transformation, while weak democracies stagnated.
Chile’s Complex Legacy
https://www.project-syndicate.org/onpoint/pinochet-coup-50th-anniversary-by-sebastian-edwards-2023-09
For 16 years after Augusto Pinochet's coup on September 11, 1973, Chile was subjected to a military dictatorship, widespread human-rights abuses, and an extraordinarily successful free-market experiment. Today, Chileans are still grappling with a legacy that is as abhorrent as it is enviable.
While established democracies do better economically than autocracies overall, the handful of autocrats who have focused on economic growth — rather than their own Swiss bank accounts — have managed to outperform fledgling democracies, according to Ronald Gilson, professor emeritus of law and business at Columbia University, who co-wrote a 2011 paper, “Economically Benevolent Dictators: Lessons for Developing Democracies.” Chile under Augusto Pinochet, South Korea under Park Chung-hee and China under Deng Xiaoping stand out as countries that achieved wholesale economic transformation, while weak democracies stagnated.
Chile’s Complex Legacy
https://www.project-syndicate.org/onpoint/pinochet-coup-50th-anniversary-by-sebastian-edwards-2023-09
For 16 years after Augusto Pinochet's coup on September 11, 1973, Chile was subjected to a military dictatorship, widespread human-rights abuses, and an extraordinarily successful free-market experiment. Today, Chileans are still grappling with a legacy that is as abhorrent as it is enviable.
https://www.milkenreview.org/articles/the-chilean-enigma
However, despite these successes, the economy hardly made a dent in income and wealth inequality (which was very high even by Latin American standards). Indeed, Chile was also unique in Latin America for exhibiting relatively low levels of social conflict in spite of severe inequality.
A model initially developed by Albert Hirschman, the German-American economist, provides a way to think about the Chilean paradox. In this model, people in rapidly developing economies become tolerant of income inequality, expecting the income gap to fall later. However, with growth slowing and consumption shifting to expensive services not subsidized by the state, many lower-middle income Chilean families face crippling debts from education and healthcare. And here’s the kicker: little to show for it in terms of socioeconomic mobility.