Resumo

GARGARELLA, Roberto. Una maquinaria exhausta: Constitucionalismo y alienación legal en América. Isonomía [online]. 2010, n.33, pp.7-34. ISSN 1405-0218.

After more than 200 years, Latin American constitutionalism exhibits important deficits: unstable political systems; economic inequality; violations of human rights; the existence of a huge gap between the representatives and the people; the decisive presence of powerful interest groups; a difficult system of access to justice; social protests, and the criminalization of social protesters; an impoverished public debate. In this work, the author explores some of the institutional causes of that complex situation, related to the very nature of the constitutional system still dominant in the region.

Palavras-chave : Constitutionalism; Latin America; republicanism; checks and balances; deliberative democracy.