ABSTRACT
Chile, the territory located in the most western part of South America, is the longest country of the world, with a total length of 4,329 km. It is as narrow as 90 km at its southernmost point and extends to 468 km in width. This results in Chile being one of the most ecologically and culturally varied parts of the American continent. The government considers all the inhabitants as Chileans (although there are different ethnic groups) with the prominent groups being the Mapuches, Aymaras and Quechuas. Culturally, politically and economically, Chile has recently undergone much upheaval related to the political transition from a dictatorship to a democracy, and also with the process of going from an authoritarian liberal economic model to a democratic liberal economic one (Castells, 2006). In the Chilean context, there has been strong and constant economic growth since 1984, with a small recession in that year and another one with the current economic crisis. It is important to point out that the poverty level has decreased by 50% and that there has been educational progress in relation to more people gaining access (Castells, 2006). Despite this, there are still two development models according to Castells (2006): an “excluding liberal authoritarian” model and an “including liberal democratic” one. The second model is the current one in the Chilean society (Castells, 2006). However, this model has a logic that comes from the model that was followed during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. This is the reason why there are still such strong inequalities in the country.
