This paper explores the connection between neoliberalism and the capitalist classes in Argentina and Chile. In particular, it investigates the legacies of neoliberal reform for capitalist class formation, asking why capitalists were able to achieve a hegemonic class position through reform in Chile though not in Argentina. Albeit many historical commonalities, market reforms ended up producing different outcomes and reactions: a tempered neoliberalism in Chile that have only recently been contested, and a post-neoliberal backlash in Argentina in the wake of the 2001 crisis. These divergent paths are related with the outcome of market reforms and various other factors, including the capacity of businessmen to restore political and class power. The ideological cohesion, political influence, and symbolic power of the Argentinean and Chilean business classes are contrasted. I conclude by discussing the relationships
between capitalist classes’ power and their capacity to resist collectivist attempts to undo marketization.
Undurraga, T. (2016). Business, politics and ideology: Neoliberalism and capitalist class formation in Argentina and Chile (1990 – 2014). Política. Revista De Ciencia Política, 54(2), pp. 175–205. https://doi.org/10.5354/0719-5338.2016.44780
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