A new consensus is being built in Chile: The possibility of development

Chile has been building growing and carefully-planned consensuses as of 1990. The institutional quality of these agreements allows us to look at the medium and long term from a different point of view. The solid foundations that have been laid throughout 15 years enable a reflection on some of the future Chile’s characteristics beyond the short term. The consensus on the possibility of development brings the government and moderate opposition together, thus becoming a virtuous state policy.

How can we define the Chilean leaders’ “realistic aspiration” to achieve development? In this case, the reference standard we will use is the bottom third developed countries’ current standard of living. That is, considering the current real income (PPP) of Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, Korea, Taiwan, Greece, Singapore, New Zealand or Israel, it would be possible for Chile to achieve that level of development in 2020, growing at a realistic rate of 5.5% per year.

Pedro Isern Munné is Director of the Area Economics and Rule of Law of CADAL. He has a Master Degree in Political Philosophy (London School of Economics and Political Science), a Master Degree in Economics and Political Sciencie (Escuela Superior de Economía y Administración de Empresas), a BA in Political Science (Universidad de San Andrés) and his currently a Ph.D. History student at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella. He was visiting fellow at the Atlas Economic Research Foundation - USA.