Political Liberalism and Constitutional Theory: John Rawls’s Influence on the Political Constitution of 1991

Abstract

This article, the result from a qualitative study of the historical-hermeneutical type, analyzes the influence of Rawls’s political ideas in the formulation of the Political Constitution of 1991. It concretizes his ideas and their possible influence on such Constitution in order to comprehend if the concepts he proposes have significantly permeated the Colombian constitutional reality.

This text sets two reflection scenarios: firstly, the exposition of the epistemological foundations of John Rawls’s thinking from two of his works: Theory of Justice (1971) and Political Liberalism (1993), in which he presents the main principles of what he considers a democratic society; secondly, there is a revision of how Rawls’s principles of justice are present in the Political Constitution of 1991, which leads to the conclusion of whether or not Colombia, as a state, has any relation to Rawls’s idea of political liberalism.

Even the Political Liberalism was published two years after the declaration of the Political Constitution of 1991, it is possible to evidence the influence of Rawls’s thinking, specifically, his postulates about the theory of justice, which were restated by Rawls himself in his book with the same name.

This article deepens into Rawls’s political - philosophical framework and shows how it has permeated the Political Constitution of 1991, becoming reading material that provides discussion elements to the Colombian political sciences.