Chile and Latin America ’s Disposable Constitutions

Ian V ásquezChile votes this Sunday on a proposed, new constitution. It is a far-left document that would undermine fundamental rights and impoverish the country. Chileans should reject it. My colleagues and I have discussed the Chilean success story under the current constitution, the political conditions that gave rise to a constitutional convention that began meeting last year, and the problems with the proposed basic charterhere,here,here,here, andhere.In light of Chile ’s referendum, I reprint below a rough translation of anarticle I published in Peru in 2019 about Latin America ’s sorry tradition of frequently replacing its constitutions with increasingly longer ones (the proposed Chilean constitution would make it one of the longest in the world if approved). Although the article was intended to dissuade Chile and Peru from going down the constitutional convention path, it is still relevant in those countries and beyond.Disposable Constitutions (El Comercio, November 5, 2019)To resolve our problems, we need a new constitution. That old, Latin American way of thinking has resulted in Latin America becoming the region with the most constitutions in the world.Latin America has had almost 200 constitutions, more than 10 per country, on average (the European average is 4; the British American average is 1.5). The Dominican Republic has had 32 constitutions, the most in the region, followed by Venezuela (26) and Ecuador (21). Peru has “only” had 12.Those numbers com...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs