ORIGEN DEL PRESIDENCIALISMO CHILENO: REFORMA CONSTITUCIONAL DE 1970, IDEAS MATRICES E INICIATIVA LEGISLATIVA EXCLUSIVA Translated title: THE ORIGINS OF CHILEAN PRESIDENTIAL REGIME: THE 1970 CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT, ESSENTIAL PURPOSE OF A BILL AND THE EXECUTIVE EXCLUSIVE LEGISLATIVE INICIATIVE

Abstract

En este trabajo los autores revisitan la reforma constitucional de 1970 que consagró, a su parecer, dos instrumentos cruciales en la supremacía legislativa del Presidente de la República: la iniciativa exclusiva presidencial, y la prohibición de las indicaciones y enmiendas que se aparten de las ideas matrices de un proyecto de ley. Con ello, este trabajo busca demostrar que el presidencialismo chileno no tiene su origen pleno en la Constitución de 1980, sino en la reforma constitucional que se introdujo en 1970 a la Carta de 1925. Asimismo, se analiza cómo la jurisprudencia del Tribunal Constitucional, tanto la del denominado "primer" TC como el actual, ha sido fundamental para consolidar ambos institutos.

Translated abstract

In this paper the authors revisit the constitutional reform of 1970 and argue that it established two crucial devices in terms of legislative authority of the President: exclusive legislative initiative and the prohibition to incorporate amendments that depart from the essential purpose of a bill. Thus, this paper seeks to demonstrate that the Chilean presidential system does not have its origins in the Constitution of 1980, but in the constitutional amendment of 1970, which reformed the Constitution of 1925. Moreover, the analysis includes the role of the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court (-the so-called first Constitutional Court as well as the present one) in the consolidation of both constitutional devices.