Referendum for the Convocation of a Constituent National Assembly of 1999
The Consultative Referendum for the Convocation of a National Constituent Assembly was held after the electoral victory of Hugo Chavez in 1998 and summoned by presidential decree. During the electoral campaign the newly elected president had promised to refound the nation. He wanted to open a process of institutional reform by convening a Constituent Assembly. This body supplanted Congress for a transitional period of six months. In a subsequent referendum call, the constituent text that emerged from this process had to be approved to replace the Constitution promulgated in 1961. The questions of the Consultative Referendum for the Convocation of a National Constituent Assembly were: 1- Do you convene a National Constituent Assembly with the purpose of transforming the state and creating a new legal system that allows the operation of a social and participatory democracy? Answers: Yes or No 2 - Do you agree with the bases proposed by the National Executive for the Convocation of the National Constituent Assembly, examined and modified by the National Electoral Council March 24, 1999 and published in its entire text in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Venezuela No. 36.669, March 25, 1999? Answers: Yes or No The "Yes" won 87% in the first question and 81.7% in the second. Abstention reached 62.3%, the highest in the country's history until that time.
Institutional design
Formalization: is the innovation embedded in the constitution or legislation, in an administrative act, or not formalized at all?
Frequency: how often does the innovation take place: only once, sporadically, or is it permanent or regular?
Mode of Selection of Participants: is the innovation open to all participants, access is restricted to some kind of condition, or both methods apply?
Type of participants: those who participate are individual citizens, civil society organizations, private stakeholders or a combination of those?
Decisiveness: does the innovation takes binding, non-binding or no decision at all?
Co-governance: is there involvement of the government in the process or not?
- Formalization
- embedded in the constitution/legislation
- Frequency
- single
- Mode of selection of participants
- open
- Type of participants
- citizens
- Decisiveness
- democratic innovation yields a binding decision
- Co-Governance
- no
Means
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Ends
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