Social Change and Policy Change
Neo-liberalism supports free markets where resources are allocated in relation to supply and demand and encourages individualism, where citizens are expected to rely on themselves and the market for provision. Therefore, in the world of conservatism, the government rarely passes policy changes advocated by social problems as the government’s focus is on reducing its social responsibilities. Neo-liberal policies, such as those in the Chilean constitution, especially make it difficult to address social problems. In some cases, when the government passes policies, the actual reason behind the support is not the social change, but the reduction in responsibility that it offers or if it of political interest.
Despite its economic success story, Chile is experiencing many social problems. Years of suffering pushed people to demand a constitutional change. A change that would address social issues, such as inequality, by safeguard the rights of the people and allowing citizen participation in the formation of policies and other political decisions. The problems faced by Chileans include social rights such as the right to education and healthcare and the unchecked power given to the constitutional court. To establish a policy change in support of a social change, three processes are required: shaping the definition of the social problem, creating channels for debate and participation, and finally, allocation of resources.
Chilean activists defined their problem as the current constitution, a result of dictatorship, which does not acknowledge the rights of the people. This problem is framed to propose the solution to be a new constitution that is formed with more involvement from the public. This thus suggests that social change activists and other citizens would need to be engaged in the policymaking. Then, based on the insights from researcher activists, adequate resources can be allocated to deal with the issues. The government should, after that, regularly revisit the policy to determine whether it is achieving its intended results and revise it accordingly.