Education
Escobar’s mother wanted her son to get prestigious education; she transferred her son from primary school, which he entered in 1944, to a lyceum with a progressive teaching methodology.
He finished a 5-year-long lyceum course in 4 years, and entered the University of Santiago at a law school at the age of 16.
According to his own confession, he chose that school, because he wasn’t good enough in mathematics, biology, medicine or architecture. Economic theories of Keynes, Marx, and later of Friedman influenced a lot the shaping of Lagos’s world view. His thesis work on the topic “Concentration of economic power” was highly estimated.
After having graduated from the university a young lawyer moved to the USA in 1960, there he entered Duke University, where he obtained his Ph.D. after two years of studying.
Career
In September 1970 a socialist Salvador Allende, the candidate from Unidad Popular (Popular Unity) coalition, won presidency. But three years later there happened an armed coup led by General Augusto Pinochet. Salvador Allende was killed in the presidential palace “La Moneda”. Pinochet became the head of the military junta, declared martial law, suspended the constitution and dissolved the National Congress.
During Pinochet’s ruling Ricardo Lagos in addition to being one of the leaders of the Socialist Party of Chile, he became President of the Democratic Alliance, a force that grouped the majority of the democratic parties opposing the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.
In August 1988 the military junta officially canceled state of emergency that had been in Chile almost for 15 years. But main repressive decrees, Pinochet’s Constitution and prohibition on activity of opposition parties continued their existence. Political prisoners were still in jails and emigrants, who opposed dictatorship, couldn’t return to their homelands.
After the plebiscite that took place on October 5, 1988 and after which Augusto Pinochet was deprived of power, Ricardo Lagos became one of the creators of democratic parties coalition ”the Concertación” (Agreement), that became the ruling party after the overthrow of dictatorship. He was named Minister of Education. Primary to
In 1993 Ricardo Lagos ran for presidency being the candidate from the Democratic Alliance. But in June that year he lost the primary to Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle who obtained the coalition’s majority.
In January 1998 Ricardo Lagos left his governmental post (he was Minister of Public Works) in order to start his pre-campaign as the candidate from ruling coalition “the Concertación”. At the end of May being a representative from right-wing parties he won the preelection having obtained the majority (70%).
But the most difficult round of elections was going to start. He had a serious opponent, 46-year-old Joaquin Lavin, an alcalde of a rich metropolitan suburb Las Condes; he was an economist from Chicago School, the representative from the right-wing party “The Independent Democratic Union”.
In December 12, 1999 none of the candidate obtained the absolute majority in the first round of presidential elections. On January 16, 2000, Ricardo Lagos Escobar won in the second round of the presidential runoff.
Politics
According to the opinion of Lagos, the key factor of dynamic development and of the achievement of social peace is the global improvement of relations in a triangle “government – entrepreneurs – workers”.
Lagos is for the reducing of administrative procedures during the registration of private companies.
Ricardo Lagos thinks that the Cabinet Council must consist of 16 ministers instead of 21, as it was before, moreover 5 of them must be women, because it is women, who are the majority of population in Chile. In Chilean government women lead the most important ministries, like, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, of Education, of Planning, and, of course, the Ministry of Women.
Lagos understands that the opportunities of the future development of the country without changing the Constitution are limited. In order to reach agreement within the society Lagos intends to put to a referendum a range of legal issues. According to his opinion, the order of the formation of the Upper House of the Chilean Parliament should be changed. He thinks that senators should be elected but not appointed. The President doesn’t hide that he intends to establish the right of the head of the executive power to appoint and to retire heads of security agencies, which is not provided under the Constitution.
The maturity of Lagos’s policy can be seen in respect to national minorities and in acceptance of cultural diversity.