Chile

Chile's economy is the most open in Latin America, built on copper exports that constitute roughly 50% of export revenue and fund a sovereign wealth fund modelled on Norway's. The 2019 social uprising — triggered by a metro fare increase but reflecting deeper inequality — led to a constitutional rewriting process that ultimately failed: voters rejected both the progressive 2022 draft and the conservative 2023 draft, leaving the Pinochet-era constitution in place despite broad agreement that it needs replacement. This constitutional limbo illustrates a governance paradox: the population agrees the current rules are inadequate but cannot agree on replacements, creating institutional paralysis similar to evolutionary stasis. Chile's pension system (AFP), pioneered under Pinochet as the world's first fully privatised pension model, has produced retirement incomes that most workers consider inadequate, generating sustained political pressure for reform that successive governments have partially but never fully addressed.