Citizen participation within and against neoliberalism: Chile, 2019

In October 2019, the Chilean Government decided to increase the price of public transport. Citizens responded through massive street protests. Ten days later, the Government decided to freeze the price.

The success of this protest led Chilean society to consider the need for citizen political intervention to question the neoliberal economic model. An example is the candidacy for the Chilean presidency of Gabriel Boric, leader of the student and citizen protests, and his victory in the 2021 elections. Boric inaugurated a new political cycle dominated by the elaboration of a new Constitution that would be submitted to citizen opinion through a referendum.

The objective of this seminar is to examine the rejection and preservation of neoliberalism in Chilean politics and society during these years, with emphasis on: 1) the spaces of participation and political denunciation that Chilean citizens create in this period to stop the abuses of neoliberalism; 2) the political, economic, and mercantile mechanisms that help the preservation of neoliberalism; 3) how these political changes impact Chilean culture.

Jorge Costa Delgado is Assistant Professor at the Department of History and Philosophy, University of Alcalá (Spain). He is part of the research group "Social Philosophy" (University of Alcalá) and is currently participating in the research project “Institution and Constitution of Individuality: Ontological, Social and Legal Aspects”.