Populism in Chile

Abstract

This article describes the features of Latin American populism, particularly those that characterised this phenomenon in Chile in the twentieth century, under the governments of Carlos Ibáñez del Campo (first term) and Salvador Allende, and in the twenty-first century, during part of the second term of President Michelle Bachelet, addressing the effects of her reforms. The article explains why the period between 1990 and 2014 is considered to have been exempt from populism, and in turn, to have been a historical period in which Chile concurrently faced high economic growth rates, poverty reduction, human development, and social peace