The idea that the governments of the Concertación (1990-2010) were administered to the model of the dictatorship generated, among those who defended and defend these governments, a great burning; a form of denigration of the achievements of these governments. However, it appears a more succinct form of referring to what did these governments -compared with the fundamental changes implemented during the dictatorship, the Concertación governments are minors (which, by the way, when it won elections showed themselves as moderate people who made moderate changes, in other words remained in the model).
Now, any statement about the continuity of the model has to be based on a definition. For now we use one that was used by the Government of the time, beyond how seriously you take it, as a summary of the main changes made. The famous ‘seven modernizations’. They can be summarized in the following list (following Dario Menanteau-Horta, The role of the State in the social development and the Reform of the foresight in Chile and EE.USA, Magazine Austral of Social Sciences, 2006, 10: 5-22)
1. The Reform Plan Work.
2. The Pension Reform.
3. Changes in the health plans.
4. Municipalization of Education.
5. Modernization Of The Judiciary.
6. Changes in Agriculture.
7. Regionalization and Changes in the Public Administration.
In an interview to José Piñera in 1979, who designed in a specific part of several of them, using the same listing, tells us of its principles:
The work Plan with the freedom of association; the future pension reform, pension system based on individual capitalization; the Directors Educational and health reform through decentralization and operational flexibility of individual options; the modernisation court to make it more effective and expeditious access to justice; the rearrangement in the agricultural sector strengthen private property in the field; and finally, the administrative reform to streamline the state sector and allowing to reduce their size that overwhelms with its burden to all the chileans
Defined that way, it is clear that we live under the aegis of these transformations. With subsequent changes, the Labor Reform still in force; pensions operate under individually funded; in Health continue to exist Isapres; in education, unicef, the loss of prerogatives of the MINEDUC and the expansion of private education continue to operate; we continue to operate under an export agriculture, with strong property rights (think of the Water code). The reforms purely state (Law and Administrative) are less clear, even though it can be mentioned that continuous territorial planning, with regions.
More in general, the orientation of the economy to exports, with low tariffs, free exchange of currencies, the less presence of the State directly (through companies) and indirectly (fewer regulations, for example, there is very little regulation of prices), the centrality of the market and the private sector, targeting, targeting of public policies, continue to operate.
The great changes of the Consultation will focus mainly on two types -and none of them involves more than administering. One of them is in terms of outcomes: growth, decrease of inflation, decrease of poverty. But clearly that is not part of the model as such a high level of poverty. Show that these results (and it is not the intention here to deny their magnitude or relevance for society) is, literally, good administration. The latter are all of them modifications in the margins: thinking in pensions, some of the modifications follow the guidelines set by Piñera (choice of type of fund, from a To E); others operate in a manner subsidiary (solidarity pillar to low pensions). The core of the system remains intact (individually-funded system administered privately). Even accepting that the intention was different (I’m thinking that in several cases the initial intentions of reform were more extensive than in other cases, such as the BOOM, as it has investigated Garretón); the case is that the result is of type administrative: Perform the modifications necessary for the system to continue operating -a logic that is so conservative that the phrase classic is in Burke in Reflections on the Revolution in France.
In other words, it is so obvious and evident that it is true that the Conclusion given by the model (if you want, in addition, it did successfully), that the resentment can only be the product of a bad conscience about it.