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31 L. & Critique 1 (2020)

handle is hein.journals/lwcrtq31 and id is 1 raw text is: Law and Critique (2020) 31:1-5
https://doi.org/1 0.1007/s10978-020-09259-7
Introduction: Chile's'Constituent Moment'
Emilios Christodoulidis'  Marco Goldoni'
Published online: 1 April 2020
© Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract
The introduction looks at the constitutional situation in Chile since the demand for
a new Constitution erupted in demonstrations all across the country, and argues that
the notion of 'constitutional moment' is inadequate to capture the radicality of the
popular mobilisation that is sweeping the country as a pure expression of constituent
power.
Keywords Constitutional moment - Constituent power
Few documents speak more clearly of the alliance between market thinking and
authoritarian constitutionalism than a letter written by Margaret Thatcher in Febru-
ary 19821 in response to a letter sent to her by Hayek and, more likely, to a conver-
sation that took place possibly a few days before during a dinner organised by Wal-
ter Solomon and attended by both. From the letter, one can infer what was already
known: Hayek's positive judgment on the performance of the Chilean economy
under Pinochet. After all Hayek had first-hand evidence of Chile's economic 'mira-
cle' having personally visited Chile twice: first in 1977 and then in 1981. In both
cases, he wrote articles for European newspapers criticising the bias toward Pino-
chet's Chile exhibited in the mainstream media and praising the outstanding eco-
nomic performance. But there is more to note. Hayek had no misgivings about the
military means deployed for imposing the regime of the market on Chilean society.
In a 1981 interview to the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio, Hayek went so far as to
state that a transitional authoritarian liberalism would be preferable to forms of what
The letter is available on the website of the Thatcher's archive (1982).
E Emilios Christodoulidis
Emilios.Christodoulidis@glasgow.ac.uk
Marco Goldoni
Marco.Goldoni@glasgow.ac.uk
School of Law, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland

I_) Springer

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