From the exception to the rule

Abstract

In Colombia, the state of exception is a legal and political mechanism in which the head of the executive branch extends its powers temporarily under the pretext of averting a serious confrontation to the constitutional order. However, despite its exceptional nature, the reality is that within the national legal and political culture, the use of this figure is rather normal. Thus, this article aims to assess the way in which exceptionality has become recurrent, through states of exception and other figures that allow a margin of maneuver to the extraordinary executive power and outside the radar of constitutional controls. Likewise, the text examines how the governments have taken advantage of the notion of exceptionality as a form of government, subtly prolonging the periods of exception to circumvent the constitutional controls imposed on them. To this end, the article focuses in particular on what has recently happened with the health emergency caused by COVID-19 in the country. For this purpose, historical, contextual and comparative analysis tools were used.

Keywords

• Colombia
• COVID-19
• state of exception
• state of emergency
• health emergency
• hyperpresidentialism