Morales Cerda on Feminist Manifestos and Constituent Power

GCDC Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr Natalia Morales Cerda has just published a peer-reviewed article titled ‘Feminist Manifestos: Challenging the Limits of Performative Constituent Power through Political Representation’. The article, which appears in Global Constitutionalism, explores how feminist manifestos, particularly within the Chilean feminist movement, have acted as powerful tools for denouncing exclusion and asserting constituent power, yet are frequently neglected within constitutional scholarship. It engages with existing feminist constitutional theory and argues that, while manifestos can reimagine constituent power in transformative ways, their potential remains constrained if political representation is overlooked. Through an analysis of the Chilean constitution-making process (2019–2022), the article shows how feminist movements can influence constitutional change, whilst also demonstrating the limitations of approaches that neglect representation.

Read the article on the Global Constitutionalism website.