The precarity of social rights and its incidence in power relations configuration in Chile

Abstract

The constitutionalization of fundamental rights through liberal language favours their individual dimension. The sedimentation of the individualist constitutional paradigm has incubated an iusprivatistic matrix that introduces difficulties when constitutionalizing rights of a social nature. In this regard, Chilean doctrine has tried to deal with these difficulties but has yet to overcome them. The fragility in recognizing these social rights has caused a crisis in them, to the point that their status as rights is denied. The crisis of social rights can be analyzed more fully if, in addition to broadening the constitutional frameworks of interpretation, we also incorporate a perspective on the link between the fragility of rights and some social phenomena that incubate conflicts, such as unrest and the processes of exclusion from citizenship.