Challenges in Constitution-Making: Lessons Learned from Chile’s Recent Process and Comparative Analysis with Poland and the Netherlands

Esteban Szmulewicz was invited to give a presentation at a seminar titled ‘Challenges of representative and participatory constitution-making: insights from the recent Chilean processes’ as part of his PhD trajectory. The seminar, which was attended by colleagues affiliated with the Institute in Warsaw, as well as other Polish academics and participants online, focused on several topics including citizen participation, gender parity, the crisis of representative institutions, political polarization and radicalization, and the problems of deliberation revealed during constitution-making.

The discussions were comparative in nature, highlighting that these challenges are common to many countries attempting to introduce constitutional reform such as Poland and the Netherlands. During the seminar, participants shared diverse perspectives that contributed to a rich and informative discussion that deepened understanding of the complexities and difficulties faced in the process of constitution-making. Overall, the seminar provided valuable insights into common issues and potential solutions for creating representative and participatory constitutions.