TROJAN HORSE OR SCAPEGOAT? CHILEAN STATE COMPANIES IN THE COLD WAR, CA. 1940-1990

Abstract

This paper analyzes the performance of Chilean state companies between the 1940s and the 1990s, arguing that they were neither the Trojan horse of a statist project nor to blame for the populist management of the economy seen in the past. They can be viewed as a tool used by governments of different political colors to implement diverse projects. By reconstructing the role played by state companies during the period in question, the paper shows that they were not in themselves of a populist, progressive or developmental nature but, rather, represented contrasting projects related to the state as producer, the social area of the economy, the integrated state and other categories seen through to the 1970s.