Limitless land and the redefinition of rights: Popular mobilisation and the limits of neoliberalism in Chile, 1973-1985

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-1-2012

Abstract

In 1985, the Pinochet dictatorship reversed radical neoliberal urban development policy in response to economic crisis and political pressure mounted by the urban poor in alliance with the Catholic Church and the Left. The regime's free-market policies conflicted with a popular sector political culture that considered housing a right which the state must uphold. To implement its radical policies, the regime sought to change the understanding that housing was a right and the state a legitimate target of demand. However, it was unsuccessful. In the early 1980s, organised pobladores successfully brought the affordable-housing crisis to the forefront of public attention via the resurrection of pre-coup forms of direct action and pressured the dictatorship to back down from neoliberal dogmatism. © Copyright 2012 Cambridge University Press.

Publication Title

Journal of Latin American Studies

Volume

44

Issue

3

First Page

523

Last Page

552

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1017/S0022216X12000399

ISSN

0022216X

E-ISSN

1469767X

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