Publication:

The influence of the Kemmerer’s Mission in the Constitution of 1925

The Kemmerer Mission, which visited Chile between July and October 1925, was hired in order to implement a series of monetary and financial reforms intended to achieve monetary stability in the country. As part of this work, it was also consulted regarding some articles of the Constitution that was being drafted during this period. The participation of the Kemmerer mission in the discussion regarding the budgetary and fiscal norms of what would be the Constitution of 1925 is a matter that has not been sufficiently studied either by the constitutional or economic history in Chile. Some of the proposals of the Mission, such as the debates on the presidential initiative, came to ratify issues already agreed upon. Others, such as the reduction of the discussion period for the budget and the requirement to approve funded bills, were widely welcomed. And there are other matters where Kemmerer’s proposals were rejected. Based on this, we conclude that its influence on these matters was limited. But although the stricture in budgetary matters proposed by the Kemmerer Mission was considered excessive in the country, even in an admittedly presidential convention, this marks the beginning of a trend that laid the foundations for the concentration of financial power in the Executive.