Augusto Pinochet - Ideology and Public Image

Ideology and Public Image

Pinochet and his regime have been characterised as fascist. For example, author Samuel Chavkin, in his book Storm Over Chile: The Junta Under Siege, repeatedly characterizes both Pinochet himself and the military dictatorship as fascist. However, he and his regime are generally excluded from academic typologies of fascism. Roger Griffin included Pinochet in a group of pseudo-populist despots distinct from fascism and including the likes of Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Suharto, and Ferdinand Marcos. He argues that such regimes may be considered populist ultra-nationalism but lack the palingenesis necessary to make them conform to the model of palingenetic ultranationalism. Robert Paxton meanwhile compared Pinochet's regime to that of Mobutu Sese Seko in the former Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo), arguing that both were merely client states that lacked popular acclaim and the ability to expand. He further argued that had Pinochet attempted to build true fascism, the regime would likely have been toppled or at least been forced to alter its relationship to the United States. Anna Cento Bull also excluded Pinochet from fascism, although she has argued that his regime belongs to a strand of Cold War anti-communism that was happy to accommodate neo-fascist elements within its activity. World Fascism: a Historical encyclopedia notes:

Although he was authoritarian and ruled dictatorially, Pinochet's support of neoliberal economic policies and his unwillingness to support national businesses distinguished him from classical fascists.

This view is implicitly rejected by those who have argued that the Chilean economy revived under Pinochet only when the regime adopted corporatist economic policies as opposed to neoliberal ones of the Chicago School. The notion of Pinochet's "unwillingness to support national businesses" has been challenged by such critics, including Noam Chomsky; indeed, the copper industry remained nationalized throughout Pinochet's presidency and remains so to this day.

Jacobo Timerman has called the Chilean army under Pinochet “the last Prussian army in the world", suggesting a pre-Fascist origin to the model of Pinochet's military government.

Historian Alfredo Jocelyn-Holt has referred to Pinochet's figure as "totemic" and added that it is a scapegoat that attracts "all hate". Gabriel Salazar, also a historian, has lamented the lack of an international condemnation of Pinochet in court, since, according to Salazar, that would have damaged his image "irreparably" and that of the judicial system of Chile too.