DAVID ALTMAN, DANIEL BUQUET Y JUAN PABLO INSTITUTO DE CIENCIA LUNA POLÍTICA DE LA CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS AND FACULTAD DE CIENCIAS SOCIALES DE LA POLITICAL TURNOVER IN URUGUAY: UNIVERSIDAD DE LA WINNING A BATTLE, LOSING THE WAR REPÚBLICA. MONTEVIDEO, DOCUMENTO ON LINE Nº [02/11] URUGUAY. [JUNIO 2011] ISSN: 1688-5058 TÍTULO-CLAVE: DOCUMENTO DE TRABAJO (INSTITUTO DE CIENCIA POLÍTICA. MONTEVIDEO) TÍTULO-CLAVE ABREVIADO: DOC. TRAB. (INST. CIENC. POLÍT., MONTEV.) Constitutional Reforms and Political Turnover in Uruguay: Winning a battle, losing the war David Altman Instituto de Ciencia Política, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile,
[email protected] Daniel Buquet Instituto de Ciencia Política, Universidad de la República,
[email protected] Juan Pablo Luna Instituto de Ciencia Política, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile,
[email protected] 1 ³6HUHPRVXna pobre y oscura republiquita, SHURWHQGUHPRVOH\HFLWDVDGHODQWDGLWDV´ José Batlle y Ordóñez in El Día Introduction &RQVWLWXWLRQDOUHIRUPVDUHDFUXFLDOLQWHUYHQLQJYDULDEOHPHGLDWLQJEHWZHHQ³KLVWRULFDO FDXVHV´DWWKHWLPHRIWKHLULPSOHPHQWDWLRQDQGWKHTXDOLW\RIGHPRFUDF\LQWKHLUDIWHUPDWK. Consequently, constitutional reforms are endogenous to the will of significant stakeholders at the moment of approval depending on the political-institutional and international context in which they transpire. Simultaneously, as an independent variable and across time, reforms vary in terms of the effects and externalities they produce and the ratchet effects (the irreversibility of enacted reform measures) they create (Pierson 2004). 8UXJXD\ SURYLGHV D ULFK PLOLHX WR H[DPLQH WKH SURMHFW¶V WKHRUHWLFDO IUDPHZRUN. By almost any criteria, the country has been an institutionalized liberal democracy for a significant part of the 20th century, with political conflict and change following institutionalized and democratic procedures. Therefore, recent constitution-making has not been advocated or sought as a vehicle for LQWURGXFLQJEURDG³GHPRFUDWL]LQJ´UHIRUPV DVLQ other Latin American cases, particularly in the Andes).