Una clasificación de clases para la sociedad chilena

Abstract

This paper builds up empirically a class scheme fit to Chile and analyzes the pattern of cross generation mobility in the country, which is based on the weberian notion of class. The analysis shows that the Chilean class structure is not shaped by structural differentials in the national labor market, such as the distinctions between formal and informal sectors, or private vs. public. Using this class scheme for measuring cross generation mobility does not allow for significant differences with the CAMIN design, worked out by Goldthorpe and associates. Actually, the analysis improves the focus of three results previously obtained with the CAMIN classification. First, the mobility pattern in the country mainly depends on the hierarchical distance amongst classes; second, barriers between independent and employed sectors, as well as manual, non-manual and agrarian sectors, have a secondary importance; and third, there is a salient closure of the elite, particularly as regards down, long distance mobility. It appears that the class structure in Chile, does not significantly depart from those in the industrialized world, in spite of differences in the composition and institutional regulation of the labor market.