Genesis of legislative delegation in Chile

Abstract

This article reviews the exercise of legislative authority delegated by Congress to the President of the Republic under the rule of the Constitution of 1833. The work shows that the emergency powers that formed the basis to issue legislative decrees, were used only circumstantially for that end. Behind legislative decrees issued during the period there is no shared diagnosis about a problem in the ordinary legislative process. Therefore, birth of legislative decrees does not answer to a rational solution to a need identified by the political class.In 1874 these emergency powers were replaced by a restrictive regime of limitation of rights.