THE VALUE OF NATIONAL PLURALITY IN THE DESIGN OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL STATE

Abstract

The constitutional changes that are taking place in Latin America have meant, for many of these countries, a profound reform (or, sometimes, rupture) in the “Model of Constitutional State†that sustains their democratic systems. 19th century Legislative State (legalism as a legal theory), whose applicability practically extended to the 20th century and beyond, is being substituted on the whole by a Constitutional State configured in the paradigm of neo-constitutionalism, a prototype that we modern democracies are currently operating within. This is the case for Bolivia, wherein the 2009 Constitution established a “Plurinational Constitutional Stateâ€, with all of the implications that this has meant for the design of the institutional aspect of the country.