Addressing Economic Inequality in Constitutional Design: The Colombian Drafting Experience in 1991 = Abordando la Desigualdad Económica en el Diseño Constitucional: La Experiencia Colombiana en 1991
Abstract:
Colombia’s Constitutional Assembly enacted a constitution in 1991 whose text and application are regarded around the world as among the best examples of socioeconomic constitutionalism in the last three decades. Despite rising interest in the structural causes of economic inequality at both global and domestic levels, Colombian constitutional scholarship has not yet offered an account of the role of the current constitutional design in addressing economic inequality. In this paper, I show that the drafters of the Constitution of 1991 were deeply concerned with economic inequality and considered the problem from several angles. However, they did not agree on a structural plan with coherent tools to address it and avoid forces in the executive and the legislative branches, usually influenced by international agendas, undermine that purpose. As a result, after thirty years, the Assembly’s economic egalitarian aspirations are far from being achieved and Colombia is still among the most unequal countries on earth. Thus, the Colombian constitution-making experience provides a warning about how unclear and weak agreements in constitutional drafting when addressing economic inequality can be an obstacle to overcome it, especially in contexts that demand radical solutions.
Fuente:
Biblioteca Virtual Banco de la República
Tipo de contenido:
Tesis
