El manto liberal: emergencias y constituciones

Abstract

The paper surveys the theoretical debate over constitutional emergency powers. The first section traces the origina of emergency provisions in the Román dictatorship and its republican discovery by Machiavelli and Rousseau. A critica! j\mcture in constitutional political theory was the eviction of emergency powers írom the constitution performed first by Montesquieu and later by Constant. Liberal theory rejected the dualístic mode of operation of the constitution, and with it the possibility of fiill blown emergency powers. The omission ofthese
provisions has been críticized by severa! observers. The histórica! interpretation of the Román experience by Montesquieu has been challenged and a new reading of dictatorship has emerged from the ranks of the new institutionalism. Latín América provides usefiil cases for the reassessment of the role played hy emergency provisions in difFerent histórica! contexts. Latin American constitution-makers fully embrace, at first, the rejection of emergency powers. An analysis of the Mexican case shows that a vast array of negativa consequences were the result of rejecting emergency powers from the first constitutions. Later, when such provisions were ñnally included, it was the absence of a clear cut modal that led to defectiva institutions.