Hostname: page-component-f554764f5-44mx8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-18T17:01:56.547Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

How to Build and Wield Business Power: The Political Economy of Pension Regulation in Chile, 1990–2018

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2018

Tomás Bril-Mascarenhas  and
Antoine Maillet
Tomás Bril-Mascarenhas*
Affiliation:
Assistant professor in the School of Politics and Government at the Universidad Nacional de San Martín and a postdoctoral fellow at CONICET.
Antoine Maillet*
Affiliation:
Assistant professor in the Instituto de Asuntos Públicos, University of Chile, and an adjunct researcher at the Center for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies.
*
[email protected]
[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

What explains the remarkable resilience of pension regulation in postauthoritarian Chile, even after decades of majoritarian voter discontent and growing international and domestic criticism of Pinochet’s pioneering private capitalization system? This puzzling outcome can be understood only by looking at the combined effect of the pension industry’s long-term power-building investments and its short-term political actions to outmaneuver state and societal challengers. Engaging new theoretical developments in political economy and historical institutionalism, this study examines the long-term process by which the previously nonexistent Chilean pension industry expanded and leveraged its power during key episodes of open contestation. The analysis of pension regulation in Chile between the 1980s and the 2010s illustrates the importance of placing business power in time, motivating new rounds of theory building in the quest to address the perennial question of how business gets what it wants in the political arena.

Keywords

business powerpension regulationpolitical economyhistorical institutionalismChile
Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 61 , Issue 1 , February 2019 , pp. 101 - 125
Copyright
© 2019 University of Miami 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Acuña, Rodrigo, and Iglesias, Augusto. 2000. La reforma a las pensiones. In La transformación económica de Chile, ed. Felipe Larraín, Rodrigo Vergara, and Acuña. Santiago: Centro de Estudios Públicos. 430–490.Google Scholar
Adolph, Christopher. 2013. Bankers, Bureaucrats and Central Bank Politics: The Myth of Neutrality. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Arellano, José. 1985. Políticas sociales y desarrollo: Chile 1924–1984. Santiago: CIEPLAN.Google Scholar
Arenas, Alberto. 2010. Historia de la reforma previsional chilena: una experiencia exitosa de política pública en democracia. Santiago: OIT.Google Scholar
Arenas de Mesa, Alberto, Bravo, David, Behrman, Jere, Mitchell, Olivia, and Todd, Petra. 2008. The Chilean Pension Reform Turns 25: Lessons from the Social Protection Survey. In Lessons from Pension Reform in the Americas, ed. Stephen Kay and Tapen Sinha. New York: Oxford University Press. 23–58.Google Scholar
Association of Private Pension Funds (Asociación de Administradoras de Fondos de Pensiones, AAFP). 2006. Presentación. In CAPRP 2006. 242–255.Google Scholar
Association of Private Pension Funds (Asociación de Administradoras de Fondos de Pensiones, AAFP). 2012. Memoria 2012. Santiago: AAFP.Google Scholar
Association of Private Pension Funds (Asociación de Administradoras de Fondos de Pensiones, AAFP). 2015. A fondo (revista corporativa). Santiago: AAFP.Google Scholar
Association of Private Pension Funds (Asociación de Administradoras de Fondos de Pensiones, AAFP). 2016. Más AFP. Santiago: AAFP.Google Scholar
Bachelet, Michelle. 2005. Estoy contigo. Programa de gobierno 2006–2010. Santiago.Google Scholar
Bachrach, Peter, and Baratz, Morton. 1963. Decisions and Nondecisions: An Analytical Framework. American Political Science Review 57, 3: 632–642.Google Scholar
Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile (BCN). 2008. Historia de la Ley Nº 20.255. Valparaíso: BCN.Google Scholar
Bonnefoy, Pascale. 2016. With Pensions Like This ($315 a Month), Chileans Wonder How They’ll Ever Retire. New York Times, September 10. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/11/world/americas/with-pensions-like-this-315-a-month-chileans-wonder-how-theyll-ever-retire.html. Accessed June 28, 2018.Google Scholar
Borzutzky, Silvia. 2005. From Chicago to Santiago: Neoliberalism and Social Security Privatization in Chile. Governance 18, 4: 655–674.Google Scholar
Bril-Mascarenhas, Tomás, Maillet, Antoine, and Mayaux, Pierre-Louis. 2017. Process tracing: inducción, deducción e inferencia causal. Revista de Ciencia Política 37, 3: 659–684.Google Scholar
Broockman, David. 2012. The “Problem of Preferences”: Medicare and Business Support for the Welfare State. Studies in American Political Development 26, 2: 83–106.Google Scholar
Brooks, Sarah. 2008. Social Protection and the Market in Latin America: The Transformation of Social Security Institutions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Castiglioni, Rossana. 2001. The Politics of Retrenchment: The Quandaries of Social Protection Under Military Rule in Chile, 1973–1990. Latin American Politics and Society 43, 4: 37–66.Google Scholar
Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT). 2000. Propuesta de la Comisión de Seguridad a la CUT. Santiago.Google Scholar
Clark, Regina. 2007. La reforma pendiente con el derecho a la seguridad social. In Rompiendo mitos: la reforma del sistema de pensiones en Chile, ed. Yesko Quiroga and Jaime Ensignia. Santiago: Fundación Friedrich Ebert. 63–100.Google Scholar
Comisión Asesora Presidencial sobre el Sistema de Pensiones (CAPSP). 2015. Informe final. Santiago: Presidencia de la República de Chile.Google Scholar
Confederación de la Producción y del Comercio (CPC). 2016. Informe de Comisión Asesora de Pensiones de la CPC. Santiago: CPC.Google Scholar
Consejo Asesor Presidencial para la Reforma Previsional (CAPRP). 2006. El derecho a una vida digna en la vejez: hacia un contrato social con la previsión en Chile. Santiago: Presidencia de la República de Chile.Google Scholar
Culpepper, Pepper. 2011. Quiet Politics and Business Power: Corporate Control in Europe and Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Culpepper, Pepper, and Reinke, Raphael. 2014. Structural Power and Bank Bailouts in the United Kingdom and the United States. Politics & Society 42, 4: 427–454.Google Scholar
Dahl, Robert. 1961. Who Governs? Democracy and Power in an American City. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Dargent, Eduardo. 2015. Technocracy and Democracy in Latin America: The Experts Running Government. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Donoso, Sofía, and Von Bülow, Marisa. 2017. Social Movements in Chile: Organization, Trajectories, and Political Consequences. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Etchemendy, Sebastián. 2011. Models of Economic Liberalization: Business, Workers, and Compensation in Latin America, Spain and Portugal. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ewig, Christina, and Kay, Stephen. 2011. Postretrenchment Politics: Policy Feedback in Chile’s Health and Pension Reforms. Latin American Politics and Society 53, 4: 67–99.Google Scholar
Fairfield, Tasha. 2010. Business Power and Tax Reform: Taxing Income and Profits in Chile and Argentina. Latin American Politics and Society 52, 2: 37–71.Google Scholar
Fairfield, Tasha. 2015a. Private Wealth and Public Revenue in Latin America: Business Power and Tax Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fairfield, Tasha. 2015b. Structural Power in Comparative Political Economy: Perspectives from Policy Formulation in Latin America. Business and Politics 17, 3: 411–441.Google Scholar
Fairfield, Tasha, and Garay, Candelaria. 2017. Redistribution Under the Right in Latin America: Electoral Competition and Organized Actors in Policymaking. Comparative Political Studies 50, 14: 1871–1906.Google Scholar
Garay, Candelaria. 2016. Social Policy Expansion in Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hacker, Jacob S., and Pierson, Paul. 2002. Business Power and Social Policy: Employers and the Formation of the American Welfare State. Politics & Society 30, 2: 277–325.Google Scholar
Hacker, Jacob S., and Pierson, Paul. 2010. Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer—and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Lagos, Ricardo. 1999. Mi idea de país. Santiago: Prosa.Google Scholar
Latinobarómetro. 1998, 2008. Surveys. Santiago: Corporación Latinobarómetro.Google Scholar
Lindblom, Charles. 1977. Politics and Markets: The World’s Political Economic Systems. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Lindblom, Charles. 1982. The Market as Prison. Journal of Politics 44, 2: 323–336.Google Scholar
Madrid, Raúl L. 2003. Retiring the State: The Politics of Pension Privatization in Latin America and Beyond. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Mahoney, James, and Thelen, Kathleen, eds. 2010. Explaining Institutional Change: Ambiguity, Agency, and Power. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Maillet, Antoine. 2013. La construcción política de los mercados: variedades de neoliberalismo en el Chile post-dictadura (1990–2010). Ph.D. diss., Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris/Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.Google Scholar
Matamala, Daniel. 2015. Poderoso caballero. El peso del dinero en la política chilena. Santiago: Catalonia-UDP.Google Scholar
El Mostrador (Santiago). 2015. Ex asesor de Gobierno de Lagos será el nuevo Gerente General de la Asociación de AFP. December 21. http://www.elmostrador.cl/mercados/2015/12/21/ex-asesor-de-gobierno-de-lagos-sera-el-nuevo-gerente-general-de-la-asociacion-de-afp/. Accessed June 28, 2018.Google Scholar
El Mostrador (Santiago). 2016a. Ex miembro de comisión Marcel propone congelar las AFPs. August 5. http://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/pais/2016/08/05/ex-miembro-de-comision-marcel-propone-congelar-las-afps-y-que-se-implemente-sistema-donde-los-mas-altos-ingresos-aporten-a-fondo-solidario/. Accessed June 28, 2018.Google Scholar
El Mostrador (Santiago). 2016b. Ex integrante de comisión de pensiones sobre anuncios de Bachelet: “Es una propuesta maquillada con un lenguaje muy bonito.” August 10. http://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/pais/2016/08/10/ex-integrante-de-comision-de-pensiones-sobre-anuncios-de-bachelet-es-una-propuesta-maquillada-con-un-lenguaje-muy-bonito/. Accessed June 28, 2018.Google Scholar
El Mostrador (Santiago). 2017. En busca de legitimidad: AFP Cuprum se suma a Habitat y celebra su primera asamblea de afiliados. May 3. http://www.elmostrador.cl/mercados/2017/05/03/enbusca-de-legitimidad-afp-cuprum-se-suma-habitat-y-celebra-su-primera-asamblea-de-afiliados/. Accessed June 28, 2018.Google Scholar
Naczyk, Marek, and Domonkos, Stefan. 2016. The Financial Crisis and Varieties of Pension Privatization Reversals in Eastern Europe. Governance 29, 2: 167–184.Google Scholar
Niedzwiecki, Sara, and Pribble, Jennifer. 2017. Social Policies and Center-Right Governments in Argentina and Chile. Latin American Politics and Society 59, 3: 72–97.Google Scholar
Orenstein, Mitchell. 2013. Pension Privatization: Evolution of a Paradigm. Governance 26, 2: 259–281.Google Scholar
Pierson, Paul. 2004. Politics in Time: History, Institutions, and Social Analysis. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Pierson, Paul. 2015. Power and Path Dependence. In Advances in Comparative-Historical Analysis, ed. James Mahoney and Kathleen Thelen. New York: Cambridge University Press. 123–144.Google Scholar
Pribble, Jennifer. 2013. Welfare and Party Politics in Latin America. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Reforma la Reforma. 2017. #Creisquesoyweon. Videos. http://www.creisquesoyweon.cl Google Scholar
Rodríguez, K., Mauricio, . 2014. Presidente de la Asociación de AFP: “Ninguna industria resiste tres cambios estructurales en tan poco tiempo: el de 2008, la AFP estatal y ahora esto.” La Tercera (Santiago), October 27. http://www2.latercera.com/noticia/presidente-de-la-asociacion-de-afp-ninguna-industria-resiste-tres-cambios-estructurales-en-tan-poco-tiempo-el-de-2008-la-afp-estatal-y-ahora-esto. Accessed June 28, 2018.Google Scholar
Schneider, Ben Ross. 2004. Business Politics and the State in Twentieth-Century Latin America. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Seminario de Profesionales y Técnicos Humanistas Cristianos (SPTHC). 1984. Proyecto alternativo: un planteamiento para el futuro. Santiago: Aconcagua.Google Scholar
Silva, Eduardo. 1996. The State and Capital in Chile: Business Elites, Technocrats, and Market Economics. Westview: Boulder.Google Scholar
Silva, Eduardo. 2002. Capital and the Lagos Presidency: Business as Usual? Bulletin of Latin American Research 21, 3: 339–357.Google Scholar
Smith, Mark. 2000. American Business and Political Power: Public Opinion, Elections, and Democracy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Streeck, Wolfgang, and Thelen, Kathleen, eds. 2005. Beyond Continuity: Institutional Change in Advanced Political Economies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Thelen, Kathleen. 1999. Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Politics. Annual Review of Political Science 2, 1: 369–404.Google Scholar
Trumbull, Gunnar. 2012. Strength in Numbers: The Political Power of Weak Interests. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Urquieta, Claudia, and Carcamo, Héctor. 2014. Cuestión de fe: la trastienda del nombramiento de Rodrigo Pérez Mackenna a la cabeza de las AFP. El Mostrador (Santiago), May 15. http://www.elmostrador.cl/mercados/destacados-mercado/2014/05/15/cuestion-de-fe-la-trastienda-del-nombramiento-de-rodrigo-perez-mackenna-a-la-cabeza-de-las-afps/. Accessed June 28, 2018.Google Scholar
Vergara, Bernardita, and Domínguez, Francisca. 2016. Marcha “No + AFP”: Convocantes cifran asistencia en 600 mil y carabineros en 80 mil. Emol, August 21. https://www.emol.com/noticias/Nacional/2016/08/21/818296/Finaliza-marcha-contra-las-AFP-conmasiva-convocatoria-y-sin-incidentes.html. Accessed June 28, 2018.Google Scholar
Vogel, David. 1987. Political Science and the Study of Corporate Power: A Dissent from the New Conventional Wisdom. British Journal of Political Science 17, 4: 385–408.Google Scholar
Weissman, Iván. 2017. La semana en que las AFP salieron a buscar legitimidad. El Mostrador (Santiago), March 3. http://www.elmostrador.cl/mercados/2017/03/03/la-semana-enque-las-afp-salieron-a-buscar-legitimidad/. Accessed June 28, 2018.Google Scholar
Weyland, Kurt. 2005. Theories of Policy Diffusion: Lessons from Latin American Pension Reform. World Politics 57, 2: 262–295.Google Scholar
World Bank. 2015. Global Financial Development Database. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Young, Kevin. 2015. Not by Structure Alone: Power, Prominence, and Agency in American Finance. Business and Politics 17, 3: 443–472.Google Scholar