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How could citizens reject a perfectly progressive constitution?
This month, by a plebiscite, Chileans overwhelmingly rejected a new left-leaning constitution. Reuters described it as being one of the world’s most progressive charters. The vote to approve it wasn’t organized by some elite group managing a phony election under an authoritarian government. It was a fair election, with both the left- and right-wing parties accepting the results.
The vote was particularly perplexing for progressives because public opinion had adamantly supported replacing their current constitution. A 2020 referendum that a new constitution be written passed with over 78% of the votes, with 13 million voting of its 15 million eligible voters.
The new constitution would replace one created by the previous 17-year authoritarian military junta headed by General Augusto Pinochet. The elected President Salvador Allende was violently overthrown by a military coup led by Pinochet in 1973, who remained Chile’s dictator until 1990.
Despite being amended over the last two decades, Nancy MacLean, in Democracy in Chains, writes that it was formulated to “forever insulate the interests of the propertied class they represented from the reach of a classic democratic majority.”
Its emphasis on granting “freedom of choice to workers” by banning industry-wide…
