La reforma agraria chilena. Reformismo, socialismo y neoliberalismo, 1964-1980

This article offers an empirical analysis of the Chilean agrarian reform (1964-1973) and subsequent ‘partial’ counter-reform during the military dictatorship (1974-1980). Our aim is to explain and interpret their logic and the changes they brought to Chile’s agricultural property regime. Chile’s agrarian reform expropriated the haciendas or great estates of the landed property system. Then, under the military dictatorship of 1974-1980, the ‘partial’ capitalist counter-reform reallocated it, returning some land to prior owners but handing over most to new owners. Redistribution of the previously expropriated agricultural land made possible the genesis of an agro-industrial bourgeoisie, small commercial farming, an open market for land and a dynamic agricultural sector.