Abstract

QUIROZ VILLALOBOS, MILTON EBERT. The popular participation and strong presidentialism in the New Latin American Constitutionalism. Rev. Derecho Estado [online]. 2019, n.44, pp.99-131. ISSN 0122-9893.  https://doi.org/10.18601/01229893.n44.05.

In Latin America, the crisis context that accompanied most of the countries during the nineties a clear symptom of the divorce between the Constitution in a formal and material sense, with an evident correlate in the scarce citizen participation in public affairs. This led to some particularly critical situations in some countries of the region, specifically in Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia, which led to Constitutional Assemblies, which gave rise to constitutional texts with elements and characteristics, in some contradictory aspects and in other complementary, that have led to talk about a New Latin American Constitutionalism (NLAC).

The NLAC, in order to deepen democracy, contains instruments for greater citizen participation in public affairs. However, the generation of strong presidentialisms (with parliaments that are not counterweights, but "partners" of the President - the cases of Venezuela and Ecuador go through confused situations) go in the opposite direction, that is, they weaken democracy. This tension is a pending task to solve for those who consider that the NLAC is a style that has come to stay, transcending the historical moment and the conditions that gave rise to it.

Keywords : Constitution; Referendum; Democracy; Citizen Participation; Presidentialism; Legitimacy; Constitutional Style.

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