Constitution of Chile
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The current Constitution of Chile, approved by Chilean voters in a referendum September 11 1980, effective March 11 1981 and amended July 30 1989, 1993, and 1997, replaced the earlier constitution of 1925. In its permanent dispositions, it gave the President of the Republic a large amount of power; however, some of these dispositions, such as the power of dissolving the Lower Chamber of Congress and serving 8 year terms with possibility of reelection, were modified or eliminated after 1990, when the country regained its democracy and the Congress was reestablished. It created some controversial new institutions, such as the Constitutional Tribunal and the National Security Council (COSENA). It also made others institutions part of the Senate (President, Supreme Court, National Security Council).
In its temporary dispositions, the document ordered the transition from the former military government, with Augusto Pinochet as President of the Republic, and the Legislative Power of the Military Junta (formed by the heads of the Navy, Air Force, National Police, and a representative of the Army, the head of the Army being president of the republic), to a civil one, with a time frame of eight years, during which the Legislative Power would still be the Military Junta. It set the first eight year presidential term for Pinochet, with a plebiscite in the eighth year, in which only one candidate, nominated by the Junta, would be accepted or not. The candidate, as expected, was Pinochet himself. While the steps to follow in the case of a triumph of the "yes" option, which the document obviously anticipated, were clearly delineated, the steps for the "no" triumph were less so, but still clear enough that no serious doubt emerged when the "no" option actually was victorious in the 1988 plebiscite.
After the plebiscite, several modifications to the constitution were agreed and subjected to referendum, among them a simplification on the mechanism of future modification.
Timeline of Constitutions
- Reglamento para el arreglo de la Autoridad Ejecutiva Provisoria de Chile 1811
- Reglamento Constitucional 1812
- Reglamento para el gobierno Provisorio 1814
- Constitución de 1818
- Constitución de 1822
- Constitución de 1823
- Constitución de 1828
- Constitución de 1833
- Constitución de 1925
- Constitución de 1980
References
- Brief review of Chile's constitutional history (http://www.bcn.cl/pags/legislacion/leyes/resena_const.htm) - Chile's Library of Congress (in Spanish)
External links
- 1980 Constitution (http://confinder.richmond.edu/Chile.htm) (English translation of the original un-amended version of September 11, 1980)
- Text of Chilean constitutions (http://www.bcn.cl/pags/legislacion/leyes/constitucion_politica.htm) - Library of Congress of Chile (Spanish original)
- "Untying the knot" (The Economist) (http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3320682)