Constitutional populism in Colombia: towards symbolic efficacy of the Constitution through failed legislative bills

Abstract

Different legislative acts that have been presented in recent years seem to reduce the direct effect of the Charter and to charge it with merely symbolic efficiency that compromises its consistency, legitimacy and permanence. This paper argues, in light of three bills submitted during the latest Colombian legislative session, that the constitutional system is being charged with hypertrophic symbolic powers which, in reality, causes strains between the direct effects of constitutional rules and permanently unfinished programmatic aspirations.