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Chile votes to rewrite its right-wing, free market-friendly Pinochet-era constitution in a landslide


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WWW.NYTIMES.COM

Voters overwhelmingly approved a bid to scrap the charter inherited from Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship, a move that could set a new course for the country.
 
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On Sunday, just over a year after the massive demonstrations swept the nation, Chileans voted to scrap the dictatorship-era document and write a new one — a process that could transform the politics of a country that has long been regarded as one of the most stable and prosperous in Latin America.

 

The referendum was headed for a landslide victory; with 62 percent of the votes counted, 78 percent were cast in favor of a new Constitution, and it was leading in almost every part of the country.

 

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1 hour ago, BloodyHell said:

I mean, besides all those times where it was changed!

 

Can never be changed again.

 

I'm not sure I subscribe to the theory, but one reason (besides the widening partisan divide) is that SCOTUS over the last 50 years has approved things not allowed by the constitution by saying "sure, yeah, the constitution meant that, too." See Roe v Wade. By allowing modern interpretation of the old document, it was like a pressure valve being let off for any movement to add new rights or make any important changes.

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37 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

 

 

 

Is that supposed to be an attack on SCOTUS/similar systems? Because how would a legislative system work without some kind of review panel/court to ensure laws do not violate the constitution? If legislatures could pass whatever laws they want and violate the constitution, what point is there for a constitution to begin with?

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40 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

Is that supposed to be an attack on SCOTUS/similar systems? Because how would a legislative system work without some kind of review panel/court to ensure laws do not violate the constitution? If legislatures could pass whatever laws they want and violate the constitution, what point is there for a constitution to begin with?

At least here there's no way to overturn or otherwise balance a judicial ruling. And now that we have bad faith ideologically motivated actors running the show now, it's a problem.

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