From cold war to the washington consensus: Evolution of the multinational corporations’ strategies in chile

The relationship between rich-world multinationals and Latin American societies has been a complicated one. These firms have repeatedly been pointed to as representatives of imperialism and exploitation and have dealt with the hostility of different segments of respective domestic societies at different times. This chapter analyses the evolution of the strategies of several American and European corporations in Chile for a period encompassing an era of big changes: from an era of development policies dominated by protectionism led by a civilian government, to a period of rule of a right-wing, open market-friendly military dictatorship, to an era of democratisation and a market-friendly regime. The multinationals had to adapt to a changing political and economic environment that responded to wider global shifts in existing paradigms on economic development. The chapter shows how these foreign firms adapted to these changes by developing different ways to integrate the Chilean elites in their corporate boards.