Talk:Constitution of Venezuela

Suggestion: Was there a constitution previous to this one, and how are they different? AdamRetchless 13:13, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

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Yes, there was a constitution made in 1961.

The main article reads: "National Constituent Assembly convened by President Hugo Chávez"

"Convened" does not really explain what happened in 1999. Chávez won elections in 98 in compliance to the old constitution, and his electoral promise was to call for a referendum asking the people if they wanted to celebrate a National Constituent Assembly, so his very first decree as new president was to have a referendum asking people this.

After the people approved to have a Constituent Assembly with originary powers (this means that it must not subordinate to any of the established institutions), elections were held to choose the people integrating this Constituent National Assembly, then they later debated among themselves and held public debates asking suggestions to all sectors of society of how a new constitution should be. After mostly a year of work, the draft was finished and then, was presented for approval, again doing a referendum.

This article: History of Constitutional Reform, by Gregory Wilpert, explains this with more details. It also describes some of the differences with the constitution of 1961.

You may compare the differences by reading both documents:

• constitution of 1961 in spanish unofficial english translation
• constitution of 1999 in spanish unofficial english translation

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'Bolivarian-Marxist'

The Constition was 'Bolivarian-Marxist'? How about Socialist?