Critical issues in the discussion on Social State and Subsidiarity during the Chilean Constitutional Process (2022-2023).

Abstract

This article examines the critical issues in the discussion on the type of State in Chile between 5th September 2022 and 7th June 2023. This time frame is the interregnum between the two constitutional processes, and there was the deployment of arguments, by different actors, about the role of the State, the private sector, social rights and solidarity. The approach to the problem revolves around an epistemic community in which academics, experts, intellectuals and politicians linked to right-wing sectors and centres of thought installed a narrative in favour of a subsidiary State as opposed to progressive and left-wing visions linked to a social State. Regarding the methodology, it was reviewed several opinion columns, press releases and interviews published in digital and national media. The results show some points of convergence between these groups when speaking about the social State. Although nuances are evident when the compatibility or not of the principle of subsidiarity with the social State was debated. Here the positions were very far apart, with six critical issues on which the right-wing and left-wing sectors differed considerably. It can be concluded that the implications of this discussion are still open.