Chile: Political Systems and Economic Development

"Being a part of SIT Chile was a life-changing experience because of the program’s emphasis on putting heart into your academic work. It is one thing to learn about the complex political and economic history of Chile in the classroom, and completely another to experience the pervasive impact of that history on the life of your Chilean host family and friends firsthand. Being immersed in Chilean culture and having the opportunity to explore its different facets, including on the week-long homestay with the indigenous Mapuche, added a whole new level of connection and meaning to our classroom studies that was unlike anything I had previously experienced."

-- Ariel Geist, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Explore the political and economic dynamics shaping twenty-first century Chile.

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This program explores the multidimensional factors that have helped shape the “Chilean miracle” of democratic stability, governability, and macroeconomic success. It also looks at Chile’s lingering and persistent problems of unequal distribution of wealth and power, and low rates of political participation.

Students will experience and examine the profound changes achieved in Chile since the end of the military dictatorship in the early 1990s. They will learn about the effects of democratization and globalization on Chilean society, culture, and identity.

Topics of study include:

The formation of the current Chilean political system
The country’s export-driven economy and its integration into the global marketplace
The unequal distribution of income in Chilean civil society
The effects of modernization on Chile’s indigenous population

Students will get to know Chile through lectures, field study, and independent research. Program excursions will bring students into closer contact with Chile’s forestry, mining, agricultural, and tourist industries, and provide a firsthand view of the impact that Chile’s modernization process has had on different segments of society, including workers, women, and indigenous communities.

Students will meet with Chilean social and political actors, union activists, and community leaders. They also will be closely integrated into Chilean culture through the program’s homestays and intensive Spanish instruction.

Lecturers for the program are drawn from institutions such as:

Browse this program's Independent Study Projects/Undergraduate Research

Credits: 16

Duration: 15 weeks

Program Base: Santiago

Language Study: Spanish

Prerequisites: Coursework in economics, political economy, and/or development studies; 3 semesters college-level Spanish. Read more...