Dilemmas of economic and political modernisation in Chile: a jaguar that wants to be a puma.

This article deals with the problems of Chile's transformation into an economic success within the political framework of limited democracy. Feline images are used to point to the similarities between Chile, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, or between the Latin American jaguar and the East Asian tigers. A comparison of some of the social and economic data of the felines shows some similarities and striking differences, and constitutes the first part of this work. Without entering into historical developmental comparisons, a rough description of the process through which Chile adopts the economic policies which make it comparable with the East Asian countries follows. A closer examination of the nature and main features of the Chilean jaguar constitutes the third section of the analysis. The last part of the article deals with the relationship between the economic feline features of Chile and its political character, or whether the authoritarian enclaves left behind by the military dictatorship should be dismantled, and their relation to the economic performance of the Jaguar. If dismantling is possible, Chile may in future become a democratic puma.