Heine Outlines Failures of Chile’s Constitutional Convention
Ambassador Jorge Heine, Research Professor at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, has published a column in The Hindu on Chilean’s overwhelming rejection of a new constitutional text.
In his article, titled “This was Chile’s ‘disaster in the making’,” Heine outlines Chile’s constitutional drafting processes and where it went wrong. According to him, a major fumble by the Chilean Congress was to allow independent candidates to form party lists and run under their banner. With trust and support of political institutions at an all-time low in the countries, these independents won many votes resulting in unqualified and, in some cases, negligent delegates. As Heine writes, “Identity politics and victimhood took centre stage, while narcissism ran amok.”
While it was an incredible feat to deliver new constitutional text while dealing with COVID-related delays, Heine argues that what was ultimately presented was more “an exercise in hopeful wishing than anything else.” Making concessions to benefit independents resulted in what Heine calls the “disaster in the making” that was Chile’s Constitutional Convention.
The full column can be read on The Hindu‘s website.
Ambassador Jorge Heine is a Research Professor at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. He has served as ambassador of Chile to China (2014-2017), to India (2003-2007), and to South Africa (1994-1999), and as a Cabinet Minister in the Chilean Government. Read more about Ambassador Heine on his faculty profile.