"El progreso y sus descontentos" lleva por título el artículo que analiza el fenómeno de las manifestaciones sociales en el país y en el cual se plantea que uno de los principales problemas es la incapacidad del jefe de Estado para enfrentar crisis como la del movimiento estudiantil y las recientes movilizaciones en Aysén. [Actualizada]
“Parte del problema es que el señor Piñera ha demostrado ser un político inepto”, afirma el periódico británico The Economist sobre el Presidente de la República en un extenso reportaje sobre las manifestaciones en el país y el cual asegura que los chilenos “se acostumbraron a protestar”.
El artículo publicado en la edición en papel del prestigioso medio, indica además que esa es una visión que no se limita sólo a la oposición y para graficar lo anterior recuerda la lentitud con la que respondió en 2011 a las demandas estudiantiles, y también la “subvaloración” de sus propios ministros en procesos como la crisis de Aysén, donde “la última víctima fue el ministro de Energía (Rodrigo Álvarez), quien renunció por el mal manejo de la crisis”.
También sostiene que a la gente no le gusta la arrogancia del mandatario, y cita a Arturo Fontaine del Centro de Estudios Públicos: “Él tiene a los chilenos convencidos de que es muy inteligente, pero no los ha convencido de que tiene corazón”.
Del igual forma, el artículo advierte que así como la mayor parte de la ciudadanía reprueba la gestión del gobernante, hace lo mismo con la Concertación, que alcanza una aprobación de 21% en la última encuesta Adimark, que es aún “más baja que la Alianza gobernante (24%)”.
The Economist señala que por el contrario, el Partido Comunista que durante años ha permanecido prácticamente al margen del sistema, cuenta ahora con la figura emblemática de Camila Vallejo, con lo cual, según declara el presidente de la tienda, Guillermo Teillier, la colectiidad alcanzó “ más influencia que en cualquier momento en los últimos 20 años“.Finalmente, el reportaje considera extraño que a pesar del “colapso de la confianza pública”, el País continúe con positivas cifras de crecimiento y de empleo.
FUENTE: EL MOSTRADOR
first time in 30 years, “trust in the liberal economic model hasweakened”, from 60% to 40%. That may be because the studentmovement has crystallised a widespread feeling that the economy,politics and the media are all rigged in favour of a small elite.
Collusion and cartels
Partly because Chile is a fairly small, remote country, its economy isriddled with oligopolies. For example, just three chains of pharmaciescontrol 90% of the market. In January, the competition authority foundthat they had colluded to push up the price of more than 200 medicinesby around half. The authority has also fined bus companies forcollusion. It is now investigating an alleged chicken cartel. Retailers getaway with usurious interest rates on store cards. This came to light lastyear when La Polar, a retail chain, was found to be fraudulentlycovering up loan losses by jacking up interest rates without tellingcustomers. Several senior politicians from both main coalitions areshareholders in for-profit universities—sorry, property companies—incovert defiance of the law. The private health insurers and pensionfunds that Chileans are required by law to use also extract large profits.The tax system similarly favours the better-off, though it has alsoproved effective at promoting private savings and investment.Corporate income is taxed at 18.5%; shareholders receiving dividendscan set this against their personal income tax. Since the top rate of personal income tax is 40%, high earners shield their income bycreating shell companies. The government is planning a tax reform thatwould raise the corporate income tax to 20%, while cutting tax rates onpersonal incomes and for small businesses, as well as cutting a stamptax on credit. The reform will raise around $700m (or 0.3% of GDP), tobe spent on education, says Felipe Larraín, the finance minister.Is this enough? Unlike some otherleft-of-centre governments in LatinAmerica, the Concertación was a modelof fiscal responsibility. It raised socialspending, but entrenched a fiscal rulethat requires the government to balanceits books over the economic cycle andto save windfall profits when the price
Chile: Progress and its discontents | The Economisthttp://www.economist.com/node/21552566/print7 de 1012/04/2012 04:01 p.m.
of copper—Chile’s main export—is high,as it is now. Alejandro Foxley, financeminister in the first Concertacióngovernment, says that the state needsto raise an extra 2-3% of GDP in taxes to satisfy the public demand forbetter education, infrastructure and institutions (see chart 2).Mr Larraín disagrees. He says that Chile’s total tax take of 21.3% of GDP is about right for a country of its income level once spending onsocial security, which is privatised, is taken into account. But thegoverning Alliance is divided. Pointing to the sense of neglect infar-flung regions such as Aysén, Lawrence Golborne, the minister of public works and a likely presidential candidate in 2013, says thatpublic spending on infrastructure needs to double from its current levelof 1% of GDP. The Independent Democratic Union (UDI), the larger andmore conservative member of Mr Piñera’s coalition, has long favoured asmall state. But it now has a populist wing that wants to cut taxes whilealso doling out additional subsidies.The debate about public spending will dominate the 2013 presidentialelection. But even more important are reforms to promote competitionand raise productivity. Without them, growth may slow and Chile willremain overly dependent on copper. Reforms often stall in Congressbecause the vested interests they hurt are often big political donors,points out Eduardo Engel, an economist at Yale and the University of Chile. It took a decade to overcome lobbying from incumbents andapprove a law allowing consumers to keep their phone numbers if theyswitched telecoms providers, for example.Indeed, the most unpopular oligopoly in Chile may be the two-partysystem that has given the country stability. It is propped up by anelectoral system of two-member constituencies, devised by Pinochet asone of several measures to ensure that the right, then a minority, wouldmaintain a veto over change. Its critics say that this has had the effectof turning political office into a sinecure, which in turn risks creating agerontocracy. The president has offered to reform the electoral systemif there is consensus about an alternative, but ministers acknowledgethat the Congress, in which the government lacks an overall majority,has no appetite to change the rules under which it was elected.
Chile: Progress and its discontents | The Economisthttp://www.economist.com/node/21552566/print8 de 1012/04/2012 04:01 p.m.
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from the print edition | The Americas
It is almost a truism that the student movement marks a generationalchange in Chile. The student leaders were born as their parents werevoting in the plebiscite that ended Pinochet’s rule. They do not sharetheir parents’ fears. They have grown up in a society used to materialprogress. They have bypassed Chile’s generally conservative mediawith their own means of communication. Fernando García, a politicalscientist at Diego Portales, points out that Chile has the fourth-highestusage of Twitter per person in the world, with almost 30% of thepopulation tweeting. Eight out of ten Chileans under 30 are onFacebook and there are more cellphones than people, “so the cost of mobilisation is zero,” says Francisco Díaz, a former adviser to MsBachelet.Fatigue may yet diminish the intensity of the protests later this year,but student leaders now talk of a broader movement drawing inregional protests. Some political analysts worry that the current crop of relatively pragmatic student leaders will be replaced by yet moreradical ones.Many believe that Ms Vallejo (who declined requests for an interview)has a bright political future. But that may be despite her affiliation withthe Communist Party, not because of it. Mr Teillier says his party and itsallies command no more than 10% of the vote. He sees the possibilityof a single opposition platform for municipal elections in October.Indeed, in the short term the student movement may have even greaterimpact on the Concertación than it has on the government. After itsleaders were jeered when they tried to join the protest marches, theConcertación sheepishly adopted the movement’s main demands. Itrisks being pulled farther to the left than the country as a whole.Mr Peña, the rector of Diego Portales, says that popular support for thestudent movement is “not really a radical rebellion against the marketeconomy”. Rather, it is the consequence of a “gigantic revolution of expectations”. It is also a sign that Chilean society has changed fasterthan its elites and its political system. The politicians have beenwarned.
Chile: Progress and its discontents | The Economisthttp://www.economist.com/node/21552566/print9 de 1012/04/2012 04:01 p.m.
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