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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Chile
Index
The 1925 constitution was the second major charter in
Chilean
history, lasting until 1973. It codified significant
changes,
including the official separation of church and state,
which
culminated a century of gradual erosion of the political
and
economic power of the Roman Catholic Church. The
constitution also
provided legal recognition of workers' right to organize,
a promise
to care for the social welfare of all citizens, an
assertion of the
right of the state to infringe on private property for the
public
good, and increased powers for the now directly elected
president
in relation to the bicameral Congress, in particular
concerning the
removal of cabinet ministers, which heretofore had often
been
removed at the whim of the legislature.
Presidential and congressional elections were staggered
so that
a chief executive could not bring a legislature in on his
coattails. The new constitution extended presidential
terms from
five to six years, with immediate reelection prohibited.
It
established a system of proportional representation for
parties
putting candidates up for Congress. The government was
divided into
four branches, in descending order of power: the
president, the
legislature, the judiciary, and the comptroller general,
the latter
authorized to judge the constitutionality of all laws
requiring
fiscal expenditures.
The Office of Comptroller General of the Republic
(Oficina de
la Contraloría General de la República) was designed by a
United
States economic adviser, Edwin Walter Kemmerer. In 1925 he
also
created the
Central Bank of Chile
(see Glossary) and the
position
of superintendent of banks, while putting the country on
the gold
standard. His reforms helped attract massive foreign
investments
from the United States, especially loans to the
government.
Although a labor code was not finalized until 1931,
several
labor and social security laws enacted in 1924 would
govern
industrial relations from the 1930s to the 1970s. The
legislation
legalized unions and strikes but imposed government
controls over
unions. Union finances and elections were subjected to
government
inspection. The laws also restricted union activities and
disallowed national confederations, which therefore
subsequently
arose outside the legal framework. Only factories with at
least
twenty-five workers could have an industrial union, even
though
approximately two-thirds of the industrial enterprises
employed
four or fewer workers, in effect artisans. Workers in
smaller shops
could form professional unions with workers of the same
skill
employed nearby. Agricultural unions remained virtually
outlawed or
extremely difficult to organize until the 1960s. The code
left
unions disadvantaged in their bargaining with employers
and
therefore reliant on political parties as allies. Those
allies were
crucial because the new code made the state the mediator
in labormanagement disputes.
Data as of March 1994
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