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El Salvador CONSTITUTIONAL BACKGROUND
The Constitutions of El Salvador, 1824-1962
El Salvador has functioned under fifteen constitutions since
it achieved independence from Spain in the early nineteenth
century. The vast majority of these documents were drafted and
promulgated without the benefit of broad popular input or
electoral mandate. The nature of the country's elite-dominated
political system and the personalistic rule of presidents drawn
from either the oligarchy or the military accounted for the
relatively short life span of most of these documents. Some of
them were drafted solely to provide a quasi-legal basis for the
extension of a president's term, whereas others were created to
legitimize seizures of power on an ex post facto basis.
The first Salvadoran constitution was produced in 1824. It
declared El Salvador independent as a member of the United
Provinces of Central America
(see
El Salvador and the United Provinces of Central America
, ch. 1). The dissolution of the United
Provinces necessitated the promulgation of a new constitution in
1841 as El Salvador emerged as an independent republic in its own
right. The 1841 constitution was a liberal document that
established a bicameral legislature and set a two-year term for
the nation's president with no possibility of reelection. The
latter feature contributed directly to the demise of the document
in 1864, when President Gerardo Barrios dispensed with it and
extended his term by legislative decree.
That same year, Barrios replaced the 1841 constitution with
one that, not surprisingly, increased the presidential term to
four years and allowed for one reelection. This issue of
presidential tenure proved to be a major point of contention for
the next two decades. The 1871 constitution, drafted by resurgent
liberal forces, restored the two-year term, prohibited immediate
reelection, and strengthened the power of the legislative branch.
This document too, however, fell victim to individual ambition
when President Santiago Gonzalez replaced it with the
constitution of 1872, which restored the four-year term.
Similarly, the constitution of 1880 was used to extend the term
of President Rafael Zaldivar. The four-year term was retained in
the constitution of 1883, but presidential tenure was reduced to
three years in the constitution of 1885. The latter document,
although it never formally came into force, owing to the
overthrow of Zaldivar by Francisco Menendez, was nonetheless an
influential piece of work, primarily because it formed the basis
for the constitution of 1886, the most durable in Salvadoran
history.
The constitution of 1886 provided for a four-year
presidential term with no immediate reelection and established a
unicameral legislature. Some limits on presidential power were
incorporated, most notably the stricture that all executive
decrees or orders had to comply with the stated provisions of the
constitution. This constitutional litmus test of executive action
was, at least in theory, a significant step toward an
institutionalized governmental system and away from the arbitrary
imposition of power by self-serving caudillos. The constitution
of 1886 showed remarkable staying power by Salvadoran standards,
remaining in force in its original form until January 1939. It
was reinstated in amended form after World War II. The 1939
constitution that filled the wartime gap was designed by
President Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez to ensure his
uninterrupted rule; it increased the presidential term from four
to six years. Martinez's effort to extend his rule still further
by inserting a provision for the one-time legislative election of
the president was one of several grievances fueling the public
unrest that drove him from office in 1944.
The wartime constitution was revised in that same year.
Although technically titled the Reforms of 1944, this document is
also sometimes referred to as the Constitution of 1944. It was
supplanted in 1945 by yet another charter, the constitution of
1945, which endured for only one year. The 1886 constitution, in
amended form, was reinstated in 1946. These changes reflected the
political uncertainty that prevailed in El Salvador between the
termination of Martinez's long tenure as president and the advent
of the military-led Revolution of 1948.
The constitution that grew out of the Revolution of 1948,
under which Oscar Osorio was elected president, was the
constitution of 1950. It retained a unicameral legislature and
changed the name from National Assembly to Legislative Assembly.
The 1950 charter also restored a six-year presidential term with
no immediate reelection and, for the first time, granted
Salvadoran women the right to vote.
A Constituent Assembly appointed by the military-civilian
junta and headed by Colonel Julio Adalberto Rivera drafted a
document that was promulgated as the constitution of 1962 but
that was basically quite similar to the 1950 constitution.
Relatively long lived by Salvadoran standards, it was not
superseded until 1983, by which time the personal and political
guarantees of the constitution had been suspended by a state of
emergency.
Data as of November 1988
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