The Chile Project

The Story of the Chicago Boys and the Downfall of Neoliberalism

By: Sebastian Edwards

Narrated by: Andrew Joseph Perez

In The Chile Project, Sebastian Edwards tells the story of how the neoliberal economic model came to an end in 2021, when Gabriel Boric was elected president, vowing that "If Chile was the cradle of neoliberalism, it will also be its grave." More than a story about one Latin American country, The Chile Project is a behind-the-scenes history of the spread and consequences of the free-market thinking that dominated economic policymaking around the world in the second half of the twentieth century—but is now on the retreat.

In 1955, the United States State Department launched the "Chile Project" to train Chilean economists at the University of Chicago. After General Augusto Pinochet overthrew socialist president Salvador Allende in 1973, Chile's "Chicago Boys" implemented the purest neoliberal model for the next seventeen years, undertaking a package of privatization and deregulation, creating a modern capitalist economy, and sparking talk of a "Chilean miracle." But under the veneer of success, a profound dissatisfaction with the inequalities caused by neoliberalism was growing. In 2019, protests erupted throughout the country, and in 2022 Boric began his presidency with a clear mandate: to end neoliberalismo.

The Chile Project provides an important new perspective on the history of neoliberalism and its global decline today.

©2023 Princeton University Press (P)2023 Tantor

Great book

After reading this book I realized that I knew very little about the recent history of Chile. This is a very good book that despite it’s obvious economic approach, doesn’t close itself to number and economic theories. The book covers social and political aspects and it is written in a very unbiased way. Until the end of the book, and somehow even after, it is hard for me to define the authors opinion on the matters.

My only point to not give 5 stars is because the book speed the pace in the end and doesn’t provide the full context and all negative aspects of the Boric government and the 2022 constitution and all the bad examples that we have on the region with similar situations, such as Argentina and Brazil.

Anyhow. I recommend this book for all those interested in the region and in this great “project” that brought Chile to a premium tier in Latin America.

Worth it!!

Just another reminder for the world on why dictatorships are the worst thing a country can possibly experience! Democracy is an economists BFF! Even the great Friedman couldn’t fix a bad idea. We should have more books like this one, great job on explaining neoliberalism!!

Combining history, ethnography, politic

Serious historical narrative
I finally understand the principles of neoliberalism.
The way this book flows from a chapter to chapter is very intuitive and allows for a scaffolding of learning and understanding the current situation in Chile and how the country got to this point.

A comprehensive and balanced history of Chile’s market liberalization

Much misinformation surrounds the activities of the Chilian economists trained at the University of Chicago—the Chicago Boys--who transformed Chiles economy from the repressive import substitution, state dominated model prevalent in South America at the time to a neoliberal free market model of Milton Friedman and the Chicago school, during and following the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet following his 1973 overthrow of democratically elected President Salvador Allende. It is unlikely that Sabastian Edwards’ extraordinarily detailed and balanced history will ever be topped. This is an amazingly comprehensive and penetrating account.