Chileans offered a modern constitution: Will they choose it?
A man passes a giant Chilean flag on the beach during a rally in opposition to a proposed new constitution, in Valparaiso, Chile, Aug. 27, 2022. Chileans will vote to approve or reject it at a Sept. 4 referendum.
Rodrigo Garrido/Reuters
Mexico City
Chileans vote Sept. 4 on a new constitution that would replace the charter adopted during Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship. The referendum is the culmination of a process first sparked amid widespread anti-government protests in 2019 and has attracted international attention.
Although nearly 80% of the population has said it wants a new constitution, polls show the final draft is highly divisive. What’s at stake for Chile – and the region – with this weekend’s constitutional referendum?
Why is Chile preparing a new constitution?
When protests against the rising cost of living and widespread inequality overwhelmed Chile in 2019, the government of the day sought to defuse them by agreeing to rewrite the constitution, which dated back to General Pinochet’s dictatorship and makes social and political change difficult.
Why We Wrote This
An elected Constitutional Convention has proposed a modern charter to Chile’s citizens, enshrining gender parity and Indigenous and LBGTQ rights, among other things. Will Sunday’s referendum endorse it?
In a 2020 referendum, Chileans overwhelmingly agreed they wanted a new constitution and chose to create a Constitutional Convention to draw it up. That group of 155 elected delegates has been praised internationally for being highly representative: There is gender parity, and the convention includes seats for long-overlooked communities such as Indigenous peoples and LGBTQ citizens.
The convention spent the past year debating and crafting a new draft constitution from scratch, which will either be voted in as the new Magna Carta this weekend, or be rejected wholesale.
Why is the document controversial?
The proposed constitution includes 388 articles. It guarantees new rights concerning the environment, gender, and education, and it eliminates the 200-year-old Senate, replacing it with a chamber of regions. The draft also recognizes Chile as a “plurinational” state, “composed of various nations,” a nod to Indigenous peoples and their autonomous territories and justice systems.
Conservatives have “had some success in framing the constitution as a project that weakens the unity of the Chilean state,” says David Landau, a law professor at Florida State University who studies constitutional design. “That framing isn’t necessarily accurate ... [but] there’s a perception that these are radical changes to the Chilean state.”
Polls show the gap between “reject” (46%) and “approve” (37%) narrowing in the lead-up to the referendum. Observers say no matter which way the vote unfolds, the process of drafting a new constitution will have lasting regional and global implications.
“There are some really important ideas in the constitution that will be influential,” says Dr. Landau, who spent several months in Chile studying the constitutional rewrite this year. “This is the first constitution I know of that would have gender parity across all major state institutions, not just Congress,” he says. “It’s not going to be the last.”
What happens after the vote?
Sunday’s vote, in which citizens are obliged by law to participate, is “one of the most important” in Chile’s recent history, says Cecilia Osorio Gonnet, a University of Chile professor. If the draft is approved, it will go into effect immediately, though several aspects, such as overhauls to the education and health care systems, will need to be legislated. There is also the likelihood that some other clauses, including the “plurinational” designation, could be amended by Congress after approval.
If the draft is rejected, it’s back to square one.
“The current constitution has to be modified. There’s a clear understanding that it doesn’t work and it is delegitimized,” says Dr. Osorio. That could mean another Constitutional Convention, as suggested recently by President Gabriel Boric, or an overhaul by traditional political parties and their elected officials in Congress.
Although polls indicate that the draft constitution will be rejected, Dr. Osorio points out that such opinion surveys have been wrong before. If, for example, enough young Chileans obey the law and go to the polls, she says she wouldn’t be surprised if the draft constitution wins more votes than expected.
Regardless of the outcome, supporters say this process has been a boon. Chile has been “able to use the constitution-making process as a peaceful way to try and resolve deep social divisions,” says Dr. Landau. “Even if the text is rejected, it shows the possibility and promise of this kind of democratic process – both regionally and globally.”