Engendering a constitutional moment: The quest for parity in the Chilean Constitutional Convention (original) (raw)
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Gender in the Constitutional Convention
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One of the most remarkable features of the Constitutional Convention (CC) has been its symmetrical composition on a gender basis, securing equal number of seats for men and women constitution-makers. Chile is the first global case of total gender parity in the composition of a democratically elected constituent body. In this edition of the Bulletin, we discuss the role that gender parity has undertaken during the current constitutional process. We begin by examining the historical background of the constitutional reform that enshrined gender parity. Then, we review the function played by gender in the development of the CC during its provisional and current stages of work. Finally, we examine the most relevant bills set before the CC and those draft constitutional rules that have been passed by the CC in relation to gender.
Chile's Constitutional Reform Process Rebooted
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Almost two years after about 80 per cent of Chileans voted for comprehensive constitutional reform and the election of a Constitutional Convention, the new draft constitution was roundly rejected by the voters in a 4 September referendum. Since the majority of those who rejected the proposal are in favour of a new
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Social movements often score some policy wins, but they rarely provoke the kind of sweeping institutional change that Chile will now attempt."
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Recently the constitutional court of the German state of Thuringia took its first decision (6/3) on a parity law in that state which required political parties to alternate on their party lists for state elections between male and female candidates and declared that law was unconstitutional. This ruling is not the "last word" on the topic yet, but it is a worrisome precedent for substantial gender equality in that country. Disputes about the meaning of equality and democracy are as long as democracy and constitutionalism itself, but the development of the debate has become more interesting and sophisticated because of the consideration of the context where these institutions operate.
The Chilean Constitutional Convention: An Exercise for the Pluriverse
The Chilean Constitutional Convention: An Exercise for the Pluriverse, 2024
Neoliberal principles were codified in a constitution and implemented during a right-wing military dictatorship (1973-1990) in Chile producing important social inequalities, as well as cultural and ecological destruction. Resistance against the arrangements inherited from that period and deepened thereafter has been paramount to recent politics. In October 2019, considerable street protests were institutionally channeled into a constitutional process where a referendum was mandated to replace the dictatorship's constitution. There were two attempts to write a new charter: one under a Constitutional Convention that took a decolonial character, and a second one dominated by a far-right council. Drawing on Loughlin's "constitutional imagination," the article poses that the Convention was a world-making exercise where social movements, independent candidates, Indigenous representatives, and their allies engaged in efforts for designing a pluriverse where many worlds could fit. I claim the Convention was a space where utopia and ideology met allowing for different worlds to work together for the first time in the political arena creating an incipient intercultural politics. As a text with world-making capacity, the draft from the Convention, although rejected in 2022, materializes a process from which stronger intersectional solidarity among feminist, Indigenous, and ecological movements should be forged. Au Chili, les principes néolibéraux ont été codifiés dans une constitution et mis en application durant une dictature militaire de droite (1973-1990). Ils ont généré des inégalités sociales importantes, mais aussi une destruction culturelle et écologique. Récemment, la résistance à l'égard des arrangements hérités de cette période, et renforcés par la suite, joue un rôle crucial en politique. En octobre 2019, d'importantes manifestations dans les rues ont été canalisées de façon institutionnelle dans un processus constitutionnel qui incluait un référendum exigeant le remplacement de la constitution de la dictature. Deux tentatives de rédaction d'une nouvelle charte ont vu le jour : l'une dans le cadre d'une convention constitutionnelle qui a revêtu un caractère décolonial; l'autre dominée par un conseil d'extrême droite. En se fondant sur l'imagination constitutionnelle de Martin Loughlin, l'article propose que la convention relevait d'un exercice de création du monde : les mouvements sociaux, les candidats indépendants, les représentants de peuples indigènes et leurs alliés se sont efforcés de concevoir un plurivers dans lequel de nombreux mondes pouvaient coexister. J'affirme que la convention constituait un lieu de rencontre entre utopie et idéologie qui permettait à différents mondes de collaborer pour la première fois sur la scène politique, et d'esquisser une politique interculturelle. En tant que texte capable de créer un monde, la version préliminaire de la convention, bien que rejetée en 2022, matérialise un processus de renforcement de la solidarité intersectionnelle entre les mouvements féministes, indigènes et écologiques. Los principios neoliberales fueron codificados en una constitución e implementados durante una dictadura militar de derecha (1973-1990) que tuvo lugar en Chile, y que conllevó importantes desigualdades sociales, así como destrucción cultural y ecológica. La resistencia contra aquellos acuerdos, heredados de aquel período y que se fueron profundizando a partir de entonces, ha resultado primordial para la política reciente. En octubre de 2019, se canalizaron institucionalmente un número considerable de protestas callejeras dentro de un proceso constitucional en el marco del cual se celebró un referéndum con el fin de sustituir la constitución de los tiempos de la dictadura. Hubo dos intentos de redactar una nueva carta: uno bajo una Convención Constitucional que asumió un carácter decolonial, y un segundo dominado por un Consejo de extrema derecha. El artículo plantea, basándose en la "imaginación constitucional" de Loughlin, que la Convención fue un ejercicio de creación de mundos en el que los movimientos sociales, los candidatos independientes, los representantes indígenas y sus aliados se implicaron en realizar esfuerzos con el fin de diseñar un pluriverso en el que pudieran caber muchos mundos. Afirmamos que la Convención fue un espacio donde la utopía y la ideología se encontraron, permitiendo que mundos diferentes trabajaran juntos por primera vez en el ámbito político, creando, así, una incipiente política intercultural. El borrador de esta Convención, aunque fue rechazado en 2022, materializa, por su condición de texto con capacidad de construir mundos, un proceso a partir del cual se debe forjar una solidaridad interseccional más fuerte entre los movimientos feministas, indígenas y ecologistas.
Chile’s ‘Procedurally Regulated’ Constitution-Making Process
Hague Journal on the Rule of Law, 2021
After tracing the social, intellectual, and political origins of Chile's demand for a new Constitution (which started in circumscribed circles as early as the late 1990s, but got momentum towards the end of the 2000s), this article describes the semisovereign democracy established by the Constitution of 1980, a feature designed by its framers to prevent the dismantling of the particularly radical version of neoliberal economics left in place by the military regime. Then, the piece analyses how the Constitutional Court's conservative jurisprudence contributed to make clear to most Chileans the link between an increasingly unpopular economic model and the constitutional status quo, something which, in turn, led President Bachelet to attempt to introduce a new charter in her second administration (an effort which failed due to the refusal of the conservative parties to replace a fundamental law that was, in fact, largely biased towards their political and economic ideas). The second half of the article is devoted to analyse the way in which the social uprising of October-December 2019 transformed the old demand for a new Constitution into a critically important institutional way to channel what at the time seemed to be a potentially catastrophic social and political crisis. Noting the-rather impressive-capacity of the political party system to agree on the path towards a new charter, the article then argues that Chile's highly regulated constitution-making process represents an instance of what Colón-Ríos (2020) calls a 'procedurally regulated' one, that is, one where an existing constitution is amended to authorize its complete replacement according to the procedures it establishes, but leaving the constituent body leeway to autonomously decide on the content of the new charter. While in tension with traditional understandings of the exercise of the constituent power in cases of complete constitutional change, this feature of Chile's ongoing constitution-making process represents a promising path to introduce a new Constitution in a manner that promotes the rule of law.