The Power and the Money

The Chilean senate is no longer completely terrible but ...

In 2015, Chile reformed its horror of a Senate. (This blog is no fan of senates.)

Previously, Chile elected two senators from 19 constituencies. Eight of the constituencies conformed to Chilean regions, regardless of population. The remainder consisted of regions split in half. In every constituency, the party that won a plurality would get one senate seat. Then the runner-up would get the other seat, unless the winning party more than doubled its vote share over the runner-up. This is the binomial system Andrei mentioned in comments.

That system is now mostly gone, replaced with one where each Chilean region gets a number of Senators proportional to its population. Inside each constituency, Senators are selected by proportional representation. 

But it is still terrible. Consider the below chart. The horizontal axis is the number of senators from each constituency. The vertical access is the population of the constituency. Five of the smaller ones are stuck with the old binomial system. And the distribution of senate seats is lumpy and only vaguely related to population. 

Moreover, smaller regions are ridiculously over-represented and metropolitan Santiago is massively under-represented. Consider:

So the Chilean senate is still a mess. But the lower house is even worse!

There is actual is actual overlap, with smaller districts getting more deputies that larger ones. Malapportionment is terrible.

In other words, the 2015 amendments may have (mostly) abolished the binomial system, but they still left districting a mess. Multimember districts are a good thing, but this is a terrible way to do it. Chile needs constitutional reform.

Although I am still not clear why it needs a whole new constitution. Thoughts?

Why does Chile need a new constitution?

The Republic of Chile is set to replace its constitution. After the mass demonstrations, all the political parties signed on to writing a new Magna Carta. Amendments readily passed authorizing a constitutional convention if a national referendum gives the thumbs up.

But what is wrong with the current document? Nobody likes the fact that it was written by a dictatorship back in 1980. But the atrocious parts of that document have all been excised. It now includes the right to unionize, the right to social security, the right to education through age 18 and the right to a clean environment. It bans no social or economic policies short of outright Bolshevism. 

So is there anything concretely wrong that requires a new constitution? 

A few obvious problems: 

1. Senate districts remain severely malapportioned, as do lower house districts. In addition, the binomial system survives in some constituencies.
2. Many ordinary laws require supermajorities for no good reason. Article 66 requires 60% for any laws that “interpret constitutional precepts.” Meanwhile, constitutional organic laws require 57%. “Constitutional organic laws” are specified in the constitution as laws giving structure to constitutional mandates; in other words, they are just plain laws.
3. The president is too damn powerful. It’s great that the executive can unilaterally propose laws to Congress. (The U.S. constitution could use an amendment permitting this.) But it is ridiculous that Article 65 says that only the president can propose laws on taxation, public services, employment, borrowing, salaries and remunerations, social security or collective bargaining.
4. Amendments intended to strengthen judicial review may have gone too far. In Chile, you do not need standing in the Anglo sense in order to challenge constitutionality: Article 93 gives a long list of officials that can bring suit before the Constitutional Tribunal. 

This is not a very long list. What am I missing? Does Chile need a new magna carta for any reason other than the symbolic?