Decentralization and regional development in Chile. A view from society

Abstract

This article presents some of the results of a survey of perception and public opinion in the fifteen regions of Chile, on the relationship between decentralization, regional development and governance. The central assumption is that the will for decentralization of the citizens and social actors is a facilitator key for regional development. Regional development is defined as the set of political, social and economic processes driven by regional actors, articulated according to priorities defined by themselves. Logically preceding this, it is assumed that there is regional heterogeneity that comes from the historical and cultural settings of the regions, and that this diversity defines an inequality in the initial conditions for the endogenous development of each region.