In 1978 Pinochet declared that the process of basic economic reconstruction was complete. At the same time, he introduced a new reform agenda, which aimed at extending a market approach to many spheres of society. The new program became known as the seven modernizations and included a new constitution with institutional reforms in labor, education, health, regional decentralization, agriculture, and justice policies. The “whole social structure of the country [was] opened up as a potential field for experimentation, based upon the pure truth of rational choice and the calculus of marginal utility” (Martínez and Díaz 1996, 92).

Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, loc. 1579