The Chilean State after the Coup

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyse the changes which have taken place in the Chilean State since the coup of 1973, and to attempt to relate these changes to the underlying changes in the class structure and in the relationship between the State and the various social classes in Chile today. Insofar as this is an essentially fluctuating situation, the article does no more than hint at what might be the shape of things to come. I have ignored the question of the overt acts of repression of the regime, and some of the structures which even they must consider temporary, and concentrated on the type of state which the Junta are trying to build.