Mirrors of change: Industrialists in Chile and Uruguay

This study examines institutional changes in Chile and Uruguay between the mid-1960s and late 1990s. It seeks to tie together the macro and micro levels in order to observe how institutions working with local and global issues interact or conflict from the perspective of two industrialists’ associations, the Manufacturers Association (SFF) in Chile and the Chamber of Industry of Uruguay (CIU). From this vantage point, the study analyses how the organizations’ ‘logic of appropriateness’ has altered since the 1960s, with the expectation of identifying changes in the way sources of legitimacy interact at the global, regional and national levels. To make the process of change more visible, the study concentrates on two years, 1966 and 1998. It also tries to identify new dimensions of comparison between the development processes of Chile and Uruguay.