Neoliberalism in Chile outlasted dictatorship by adapting to democracy

Evidence

Although the regime’s proxy candidate for the presidency, Hernán Büchi, lost in the reinstated democratic elections, the institutional framework secured cultural hegemony and the persistence of the neoliberal model. Neoliberalism in Chile (and elsewhere) cannot be equated with authoritarianism and military dictatorship, ignoring continuities during and after the transition to democracy. It is precisely the mutability of neoliberal knowledge and its flexible relationship with power that sustained essential components of the neoliberal model and the neoliberal path in Chile. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1614

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader neoliberal historiography discussion of how neoliberal ideas survived democratization across Latin America and post-socialist states. — connects to: Neoliberals needed Chile’s dictatorship to find the means to depoliticize economies. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 301; Chilean governments preserved Pinochet’s austerity model after the dictatorship fell — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1739; Chilean neoliberalism was adapted contextually, not imported as a ready-made doctrine. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1545 (+4 more)
• ADDENDUM: Relevant to the theme of institutions persisting beyond their founding power structures.