This article addresses the role of the Knowledge-Based Economy in science, technology and innovation policies in Chile. Drawing on a discourse analysis which is articulated in the main policy reports in the area, this paper analyses, first, the process of installation, unfolding and institutionalization of the Knowledge-Based Economy in the country, and how this discourse has become a new orthodoxy. Then, it delves into the process of consolidation (doxa) of the discourse, and the disputes (orthodoxia and heterodoxy) that entails. Finally, the article critically analyzes the role of the concept of development which, along with globalization and modernity, gives rise to the Knowledge-Based Economy rhetoric.