Date of Award

Spring 4-29-2013

Document Type

Capstone

Degree Name

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Department

Historical & Political Studies; College of Arts & Sciences

First Advisor

Dr. Hilary Dick

Abstract

This thesis examines how neoliberal policies implemented during Augusto Pinochet’s sixteen-year military regime in Chile have affected post-dictatorship democratization. It argues that democracy has been incomplete in Chile since the fall of Pinochet’s regime, due mainly to the three neoliberal policies of deregulation, decentralization, and decreased government funding. Through the detailed analysis of Chile’s health care and education systems, this thesis demonstrates how these neoliberal policies drastically changed social welfare practices in Chile during the 1980s, leading to extreme social inequality that has only continued to increase in the last thirty years. This social inequality, as well as the marginalization of a vast majority of the population, has impeded post-dictatorship democracy in Chile since only a small percentage of Chileans truly have a say in what their government does.

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