Against the Current: Privatization, Water Markets, and the State in Chile, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1998 Natural Resource Management and Policy Series, Vol. 14

In 1981 Chile's military government dictated a new Water Code that radically changed the country's previous water rights system by strengthening private property rights, favoring market incentives, and reducing state regulation. Against the Current: Privatization, WaterMarkets, and the State in Chile is the first empirical and interdisciplinary study of water markets in Chile, which is the leading international example of free market water policies.
Against the Current: Privatization, Water Markets, and the State inChile challenges the glowing reports given by neoliberals in Chile and the World Bank, showing that the results of this economic experiment have actually been rather mixed. Within the agricultural sector the Water Code has worked fairly well, although the market incentives to conserve water have been ineffective and water rights trading has been less active than expected. The Code's impact has been more negative at the level of river basins, where the institutional framework has revealed critical flaws in coordinating multiple water users and resolving conflicts.
Against the Current: Privatization, Water Markets, and the State inChile combines law, political economy, and geography to analyze the disadvantages, problems, and wider contexts of water markets. This book will appeal to everyone interested in property rights, market-friendly environmental policies, the political economy of sustainable development, and the intersection of economics with law and institutions.

1 Introduction.- Water, Markets, and Privatization.- Recent Political and Economic History in Chile.- Analytical Framework: Geography, Political Economy, and Law.- Research Methods.- Outline of Book.- Notes to Chapter One.- 2 Blueprint for The Neoliberal Model: Law, Economics, and Politics in The 1980 Constitution.- Origins and Politics of the 1980 Constitution.- The Economic Constitution.- The New and Contradictory Role of the Judiciary.- Diagnosis and Reform of the Judicial System.- Conclusions.- Notes to Chapter Two.- 3 Water Rights and The Law of The Pendulum: Legal and Political History of The 1981 Water Code.- Goals and Principles: Private Property and Free Markets.- Historical Background: Chilean Water Law up to the 1970s.- Steps Toward a Neoliberal Water Code, 1976–1981.- Conclusions.- Notes to Chapter Three.- 4 Bringing Water Markets Down to Earth: Water Rights Trading in Practice, 1980–1995.- Irrigated Agriculture in Chile: Two Study Areas.- The Water Market in Practice, 1980–1995.- Why Water Rights Trading is Limited.- Peasant Farmers and the Water Market.- Reforming the Water Code.- Conclusions.- Notes to Chapter Four.- 5 Private Property and River Basins: Water Use Conflicts, The Market Model, and The Courts.- Judicial Behavior in Water Rights Cases.- Non-Consumptive Rights and River Basin Management.- Hydroelectricity and River Basin Conflicts in South-Central Chile.- Reforming River Basin Institutions.- Conclusions.- Epilogue.- Notes to Chapter Five.- 6 Conclusions.