In recent years, Chile's public image of stability and political and economic success has been questioned by various social movements that reject the country's high levels of inequality. In this scenario, the research seeks to understand and characterise the legitimising discourses constructed by the political-economic elite in the face of these inequalities. Although the elite has a very high degree of influence, being able to project an official discourse through the media, the research seeks to identify the particularities and tensions of the personal discourse of its members through a qualitative methodology that uses in-depth interviews. In this way, it was possible to support the hypothesis that the political-economic elite presents a discourse full of inconsistencies given that, although it recognises high levels of inequality in Chilean society, it chooses not to question its class position or propose significant changes to the current order. Age and political position are variables of incidence in the differentiation of this discourse, despite its relative coherence.
Castillo, A., & Cavieres, J. (2016). Chile’s social inequalities legitimation: The elite discourse in a social unrest context. Revista Némesis, (13), 77–101. Retrieved from https://revistainvi.uchile.cl/index.php/RN/article/view/66200