Lessons from Venezuela’s 1999 Constitution for Designing a Democratic Constitution-Making Process in Thailand
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Abstract
The experience of Venezuela following the 1999 Constitution demonstrates that when the constitution-making process is not liberal-democratic and the system of checks and balances is weak, a constitution can become a tool for undermining democracy.
Amid deep inequality, elite decline, and public distrust before 1999, Hugo Chávez gained overwhelming popular support, leading to the drafting of a new constitution by a constituent assembly dominated by a single political group. Although the constitution formally guaranteed human rights and rule-of-law principles, the one-sided drafting process enabled provisions that allowed political interference with accountability mechanisms, ultimately facilitating the rise of an authoritarian regime.
This highlights that the process of constitution-making is as important as its content. When a dominant leader controls the process, the resulting constitution may become an “authoritarian constitution” rather than a democratic rule-of-law constitution.
Therefore, carefully designing safeguards to protect the people’s constituent power—both procedurally and substantively—is essential to prevent the transformation of popular sovereignty into a source of legitimacy for authoritarianism. The Venezuelan experience offers important lessons for future constitutional drafting in Thailand.
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