Michelle Bachelet is back in the Palace of La Moneda. Photo courtesy of Agencia Brasil, via Wikimedia Commons
To nobody’s surprise, Michelle Bachelet is back as President of Chile. Leaving aside the weakness of the opposition, what does take a moment to appreciate is why Chile, viewed as the paradigmatic Latin American neoliberal success story, should desire to deviate from this path. In other words, why do Chileans pine for the return of left-of-centre governance?
The answer is not something frequently picked up by foreign analysts who look only at macroeconomic data and projections, not to mention Chile’s membership of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development).
For a country of Chile’s prosperity, a staggeringly high number of the population are ‘at risk’ of poverty. Economic figures from 2009 indicate that although 8.6% of Chileans are in the top wealth bracket, 53% are classified as middle class, and just 7.1% are poor, a staggering 31.4% of the population live ‘at risk of poverty’. Alternatively, the problem could be viewed vis-à-vis the disproportionate distribution of wealth, perhaps best illustrated by the statistic that the richest 10% of Chileans earn 27 times more than the poorest tenth.
Chileans, its appears, have awoken to this fact and for the last few years have been demanding root-and-branch public policy changes to social and economic issues. Indeed, Bachelet was backed by the influential student leaders such as Camila Vallejo, who came to forefront of national politics during the protests in 2011. Tertiary education in the country is the most expensive in South America, and one should expect reform of the university sector to be high on Bachelet’s agenda.
Moreover, it is a sign of Chile’s social as well as economic development that there is such concern for issues of inequality. Chileans may be increasingly prosperous, but they remain courageous and principled. Much of this may be due to figure Bachelet is replacing. During her interregnum, Chile was led by the conservative, pro-business billionaire Sebastián Piñera, regarded by many as an aloof and ineffective politician of that 8.6%.
Chile’s economic strength may still be the commodities export sector, but the people are not content with big businesses and multinationals taking all the benefits.
Michelle Bachelet will re-inherit a country whose development course has continued consistently since she left office. Her task however, will be to ensure that Chile’s macro-economic progress is felt as keenly amongst the demographic ‘at risk of poverty’ as those at the top of tree.