16. The (Second) Constitutional Council

 This chapter analyzes Chile’s 2023 Constitutional Council as a disciplined and structured response to the failure of the first constitutional process. It recounts the formal launch of the Council, emphasizing its institutional framework—centered on a pre-drafted text by an Expert Commission and monitored by the Technical Admissions Committee—and the symbolic significance of its leadership by conservative Beatriz Hevia and social democrat Aldo Valle. It highlights the Council’s markedly different tone from the 2021–2022 Convention, characterized by order, moderation, and cross-bloc discipline. The discussion then turns to ideological alignments within the Council and how these shaped both the deliberative process and the final text, before summarizing the proposal’s substantive content. Finally, it examines public opinion trends ahead of the December 2023 plebiscite, noting widespread detachment as voters appeared to suffer from constitutional fatigue. The chapter concludes that while the second process corrected procedural flaws, it ultimately failed to generate legitimacy or enthusiasm, leading to the proposal’s rejection by 56% of voters and underscoring the difficulty of securing constitutional consensus in a politically fragmented and crisis-weary society.