In the face of the political shift to the left, with the Frei administration initiating an agrarian reform alongside educational reforms and other redistribution measures, the right-wing forces in Chile began to forge direct contacts and networks within and outside the public sphere. Crucial protagonists in this regard were the representatives of the conglomerates (O'Brian and Roddick 1983; Silva 1996). Many of the top leaders of the conglomerates either were trained in Chicago (Manuel Cruzat, head of the Cruzat-Larraín group, for example) or collaborated closely with the neoliberal economists from the late 1950s onward. On behalf of these powerful groups, the economists conducted courses at SOFOFA (Sociedad de Fomento Fabril / Federation for the Promotion of Industry), the industrialists' association, to win private-sector converts for their ideas. Important public channels were opened by media mogul Álvaro Saieh, who also had a Ph.D. from Chicago, and by the publisher of the influential daily newspaper El Mercurio, Agustín Edwards. The Edwards group was one of the conglomerates involved in the printing, paper, and packing industries, as well as in finance, mining, and consumer goods production (Silva 1996; also see Dahse 1979).

Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, loc. 1557