Gradual The Return to Equality: From Pinochet to Bachelet Latin America, as a region, has historically been a place where inequality is common and has been present since the 1500s when the Europeans first began conquering the region's indigenous people. Chile is by no means exempt from the commonality of inequality and the fight against it. In this paper I will argue that although the current state of equality in Chile leaves much to be desired, particularly in the areas of social status, income, education, and women, there has been significant improvement since Chile's return to democracy in 1990. In 1818, Chile declared its independence from Spain and by 1833 the new nation had developed its first constitution. The 190 years since independence have seen many political transformations within the country, often which was influenced by the military. In the early 1920s, the military restored Arturo Alessandri to the presidency and then installed a military dictatorship under Carlos Ibez del Campo when Alessandri resigned in 1927 that lasted until 1938. This waffling between the military and the democratically elected government would come to play a bigger role in the 1973 coup against Marxist president Salvador Allende ("Chile", 2007). Allende was elected President in 1970 on a socialist platform. While his time in office was short-lived, he managed to enact a number of reform policies that promoted equality such as a land reform that put formerly privately owned land into the hands of the landless peasants, increased civil and political rights for women, and increased labor rights. Allende's redistribution of wealth might have earned him praise from the previously impoverished, but it only earned him scorn from the elites. It was because of the growing tension with elites, coupled with the ongoing economic crisis, that led to General Augusto Pinochet's takeover; the repressive regime stifled any and all political dissent which effectively eliminated all progress
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toward greater equality. The Pinochet regime lasted until 1990, when the first free elections in 16 years began a period of redemocritization that is still taking place today ("Chile: Torture," 2004; Skidmore & Smith, 2005; "Chile," 2007). Since 1990 great strides have been made by the Chileans towards promoting equality throughout the nation. Gated communities are one such way of advancing equality. One might assume that the segregation of housing communities would contribute to the strengthening of prejudice and the growing gap between the affluent and the impecunious, but Salcedo and Torres (2004) conducted a study that seems to support the opposite. In Chile, gated communities are being built away from areas that are highly concentrated by the middle and upper classes to areas that are poor and that suffer from great deficiencies in infrastructure. By situating in these shantytowns, many positives are created. A few of these benefits are job creation for the indigent, a mingling of the classes that otherwise would have been quite unlikely, and a change in the cultural identity of the shantytown inhabitants from "pobladores," urban poor, to a rural working class (Salcedo & Torress, 2004, 33). Thus, it can be argued that the apparent segregation by the gated communities is a mutually beneficial relationship between the two classes because it is promoting social integration. The rich also benefit because there is a large supply of people that are capable of fulfilling the duties of household employees (maids, cooks, etc.) from which they can rely upon. In time, the increased integration could lead to a greater understanding between the classes which, in turn, can lead to greater equality. The lessening of the social inequality of the poor is also aided by the government. President Bachelet has recently acknowledged the efforts her country has made in the last 20 years towards greater equality. In a 2006 speech Bachelet mentions the need for a social welfare system. She states that her "citizens still live with a series of fears: they worry that illness, the
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loss of a job or old age could take their hopes and dreams away from them" (as cited in U.S. Fed News, 2006, para. 6). These fears have been carried over from the Pinochet era of repression and rampant social inequality. President Bachelet tirelessly tries to assuage her constituency through speeches such as the aforementioned one as well as through legislation. The U.S. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor in March of 2007 published its annual country report that illuminated the improvements in equality that have been made as well as the areas where improvement is still needed. In regards to people with disabilities, the current Chilean law prohibits discrimination by requiring that all public facilities provide access for the disabled. In practice, however, this law is rarely enforced. A 2002 survey conducted by the Ministry of housing and Urban Planning revealed that 70 percent of public and multiuse facilities were not in compliance with the equal access law. Similarly, public transportation was another instance where the disabled were slighted. While the public transportation in downtown Santiago was easily accessible to the disabled, the less urban areas proved to be more problematic (U.S. Bureau, Persons with Disabilities section, para. 1). One should not view these inadequacies as an inevitable failure to achieve equality, but, rather, as a catalyst to remedy these missteps. Chile, since the early 1990s, has been active in promoting equal opportunities for people with disabilities, as well as other oft-discriminated groups, through the use of the National Disabilities Council to further provide for social integration and equality. The National Disabilities Council should call for more compliance with the equal access law to further integrate the people with disabilities into the population (Pa Martin, 2000, pp. 339-340). While measures have been taken to rectify lingering social inequalities, there have been less instances of intervention in correcting the income gap and earnings inequality. Chile's income gap between the richest and poorest citizens is among the highest in the world, despite
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having a relatively high average growth rate. Contreras (2003) conducted a study that examined this income gap in the period 1990-1996. He found that the country's economic growth lessened the amount of poverty in the nation while also increasing the bank accounts of the wealthy. The Gini coefficients in 1990 and 1995 reflect this, being 0.554 and 0.553 respectively (AmuedoDorantes, 2005, pp. 590). The Gini coefficient is a measure of income inequality in a society with 1 representing a completely unequal system where a single individual has all of the income and 0 representing an entirely equal distribution of income (Subramanian, Delgado, Jadue, Vega, & Kawachi, 2003, pp. 844). Because both groups were getting richer, the inequality between them remained about the same with "the richest 20 percent of the population receiving 17 times more income than the poorest 20 percent" (Contreras, 2003, pp. 182). One reason for this continued inequality might be that while the substantial income gap has remained, the poor and the rich are both better off now than they were before, and that education, not income distribution, plays a bigger role in explaining inequality. This income inequality can be partly attributed to the difference in earnings between workers who participate in the formal and informal economies. Amuedo-Dorantes (2005) empirically shows that people working in the informal economy earn less money than those who work in the formal economy (i.e. have work contracts). With 20 percent of men and 14 percent of women joining the informal economies in the year 2000, there are many people earning less than their contracted counterparts. This large percentage of people in the informal economy contributes to the continued income distribution inequality in the nation. Income inequality not only plays a role in the ever-present income gap, but it also on personal health. The "income inequality hypothesis" states that "life expectancy depends not just on how much income individuals (or households) have, but also on the distribution of incomes
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within the society in which individuals reside" (Subramanian et al., 2003, pp. 844). Subramanian et al. (2003) found that there was a strong curvilinear relationship between household income and self rated health. To say it a different way: while impoverished people were most likely to report poor health, there was an increase in health ratings with each increment in household income. Furthermore, the researchers believed that countries with a Gini coefficient higher than 0.45 would experience this effect (Subramanian et al., 2003, pp. 848). This finding has important implications for Chile because of it has a highly unequal distribution of income. The government must enact more efficient policies that strive to improve the distribution of wealth rather than relying on quick solutions such as debt forgiveness in regards to irrigation systems and giving away water rights for free to certain groups (Vial, 2000, pp. 202) so that the average citizen can be comfortable, not only in the status of their personal health, but in their own financial standing. Education is another area in which significant improvement has been made in reducing inequality. Every child, regardless of race or social status, is entitled, and compelled, to a free education from first through 12th grade ("U.S. Bureau", 2007, Children section). While the system seems like a legitimate step towards equality in education, more needs to be done in practice to ensure equality. The educational level of the average citizen is highly dependent upon the income level of their homes and the parents' educational level (Len & Martnez, 2000, 301). Taking into account the unequal distribution of income, one can surmise a great disparity between the educational level of the wealthy individuals and the poorer individuals. A second issue with the current education model is that rural communities and marginalized urban areas are under funded. Schools fall under the jurisdiction of municipal governments and are appropriated funds these by municipalities. Schools in rural, disadvantaged communities are,
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many times, unable to properly attain funding and must therefore rely on government subsidies (Arnove, Torres, Franz, & Morse, 1996, 150). The residents in these areas often do not have access to the resources necessary to facilitate the process of improving the school. Both of these reasons contribute to an education gap that mirrors the countries already large income gap. Just two years ago, large-scale student demonstrations were led in protest to this growing educational gap. The students were well aware of the fact that, on average, the country's most destitute schools allocate $US 73 per student per month whereas the wealthiest schools allocate upwards of $US 385 per student per month. The demonstrations brought public attention, a much needed factor in achieving equality, to the issue. President Bachelet responded by promising free bus passes to the poorest of students so that they could get to school without posing a financial burden to their families ("Chile: Massive," 2006). More measures like the bus passes need to be enacted in order to ensure that all people, regardless of financial situation, are entitled to equal access to education. If Chile does not adequately educate all of its youth, then its future generations will be inadequately represented by the privileged; the idea of a ruling elite is reminiscent of pre-1990 politics. The status of women has drastically improved since the end of the Pinochet regime. Women have more equality in a number of areas including education, political rights, and labor rights. But as with the case of education, some of these equalities are not always fulfilled. For instance, in labor, women are still earning less than men, are discriminated against when they are pregnant, and subject to gender discrimination in terms of career advancement to. The decentralization and redemocritization that began in the 1990s meant that the role of the state was greatly reduced in all matters, women's equality included. This led to the creation of
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various organizations; one of which is the National Women's Service (SERNAM) which was created in 1991 (Molina G., 1998, pp.128-131). SERNAM, which is state run, is a major actor on the stage of the women's rights movement. Although for years it has been chronically underfunded by the Chilean government, it has managed to rely on foreign investment to implement its plans and carry out its goals (Schild, 2000, 26). There are three main initiatives that SERNAM strives to fulfill: legislative reform, social programs for women designed to inform and empower, and broad sweeping policies aimed at eliminating the social inequality prevalent throughout the nation (Molina G., 1998, pp. 131). SERNAM has been responsible for submitting all types of legislation that ranges from a law that establishes complete equality to all men and women, a law that acknowledges shared property in marriage law, and punitive laws dealing with women and child abusers (Valds, 2000, pp. 472). These legislative initiatives go to great lengths to help ensure equality for all. In the Pinochet era these reforms would have been unattainable. It is because of the shift to democracy that the women's movement has become more organized and started to fulfill many of its goals. SERNAM's publicity contributes to the women's movement in both a positive and a negative manner. One way that the public visibility is good is that it brings attention to the issue of gender equality. This attention makes it possible for the legislature to pass the necessary reforms. But the publicity of SERNAM can also be detrimental to the women's movement because it eclipses other organizations that function at a more grassroots level such as REMOS, Red de Mujeres de Organizaciones Sociales. This overshadowing of other organizations led Franceschet (2003) to observe that many people "equated the lack of public visibility of women's activism with the absence of a movement. Others believe that the movement has
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simply lost visibility, having been eclipsed by . . . the return to party politics" (pp. 13). While the redemocritization of Chile has lead to significant improvements in women's equality, the domination of the state seems to weaken the movement rather than strengthen it. The government should promote more grassroots organized groups to bring more women into the movement. The issue of marriage is another instance where equality is in need of improvement; it was not until 2004 that divorce was made legal (Chile, 2007, 308). Estrada (2007) reports on a case that deals with the division of property in a marriage. As of last year, some women, 64.8 percent of all married women, are still subordinate to their husbands in regards to property attained during the marriage. The fact that such a blatant gender discrimination exists under Bachelet, a strong advocate of equality, is of great importance. If Bachelet, a woman president, cannot speed up the process of equality, what is needed to expedite the process? To the Bachelet administration's credit there has been serious talk of civil unions for homosexuals; the discourse on civil unions has been primarily led by MOVILH, a gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, organization (Estrada, 2006). This discussion would have been impossible to have had it taken place during the repression of the 1980s because of the repression of political opinion. It has been shown that Chile has made a clean break from the repressive regime of its past and moved towards an egalitarian state. Affluent Chileans are moving out of the their traditionally concentrated areas and into areas that allow for an easy commingling between the two social groups. Although the large disparity in income distribution is present, the redemocritization of the 1990s has improved the quality of life all around: the poor and the rich have both been benefiting. The poor have been getting richer at the same rate that the rich have been getting richer; this mutual increase has continued to sustain the income gap. In regards to
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education the system is still very much flawed, but the appearance of widespread student demonstrations lends hope that the situation will continue to be attended to and more progress will be made towards equality in schools. Finally, women have gained a tremendous voice through state run agencies such as SERNAM and NGOS, but more grassroots level participation needs to occur if Chile truly wants create awareness of women's equality and procedures being undertaken to ensure that all Chilean citizens are equal.
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Opportunities to All. Retrieved February 21, 2008, from LexisNexis Academic database. Valds, T. (2000). Between Modernization and Equality: Women, Domestic Life, and the Family. In C. Toloza & E. Lahera (Eds.), Chile in the Nineties (pp. 455-506). United States: Stanford University Libraries. Vial, J. (2000). Chile's Development Strategy: Growth with Equity. In Toloza & E. Lahera (Eds.), Chile in the Nineties (pp. 185-206). United States: Stanford University Libraries.
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