Chile's current constitution was approved by a referendum in the year 1980. In its permanent dispositions gave the president a large amount of power (examples to go here). It created some new intitutions (Constitutional Court, National Security Council). Made part of the Senate designated by different institution (President, Supreme Court, National Security Council).
In its temporary dispositions, ordered the transition from the military government ,with Augusto Pinochet as President of the Republic, and the Legislative Power by the Military Junta (formed by the heads of the Navy, Air Force, National Police, and a representative of the Army, the head of the Army beeing president of the republic), to a civil one, with a time frame of eight years, during which the Legislative Power would still be the Military Junta. It set the first eight year presidential term for Pinochet, with a plebiscite in the eight year, in which only one candidate, nominated by the Junta, would be accepted or not. The candidate, as expected, was Pinochet himself. While the steps to follow in the case of a triumph of the "yes" option were clearly delineated, the steps for the "no" triumph were less so, but still clear enough that no serious doubt emerged when the no option actually was victorious in the 1989 plebiscite.
After the plebiscite, several modifications to the constitution were agreed and subjected to referendum, among them a simplification on the mechanism of modification. New modifications were made on...
This article is a stub.
