Social Crisis in Chile 2019: Review of Two Hypotheses as to its Cause

Abstract

In the year 2010 Chile became a member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, hinting at the country's economic
success. The Chilean model seemed to have brought prosperity. However, on the 18th of October of 2019 all that changed. Massive protests, looting,vandalism and arson suddenly occurred, culminating in the declaration of a state of emergency, a situation that had not emerged in three decades. Although a certain consensus exists as to the causes of this social crisis, namely the notorious inequality that exists in the country, the conventional hypothesis focuses on the disparity of material possessions (economic inequality). In this article we will examine this hypothesis as well as analyse the possibility that the source of this social unrest lies in more formal aspects of inequality (treatment); that is to say, aspects such as corruption and the existence of prodigious privileges of some over others.