Chilean Constitutionalism Before Allende: Legality without Courts

Abstract:     
In the 1960s and early 1970s two political movements in Chile, one led by Eduardo Frei and the other by Salvador Allende, achieved remarkable victories in presidential elections. They both vowed to bring about radical change within the framework of the law. Unfortunately, however, both administrations failed to achieve their objectives. This paper, focusing on the thirty-year period that preceded these two electoral victories, argues that Frei and Allende’s seemingly inordinate faith in the virtues and flexibility of the legal system was firmly rooted in the political system and stemmed from a peculiar form of constitutionalism, which it describes as legality without courts.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 18

Keywords: constitutionalism, courts, governance, legality, rule of law, presidentialism, Latin America

Accepted Paper Series