The constitutional principle of fiscal sustainability and social national project for Colombia: reflections regarding congressional Act. 03 2011

Abstract

In the Constitution of 1991, was established in Article 374, to reform mechanisms, defining three, they are: track by the Congress, by a Constituent Assembly or by the people through a referendum.

Precisely in the first option sets the Congress, to understand it as a setting for the representation of the people. The process occurs through legislative acts is a constitutional mechanism to one or more articles of the Constitution of Colombia. Precisely the national government introduced a legislative bill to amend the National Constitution of 1991, Title XII of the Economic and Public Finance, the project was finally approved in the Congress, establishing the Legislative Act No. 3 of 2011, which established the constitutional principle of fiscal sustainability, constitutional reform appears in the current state of affairs in the country as a strategy intended that the various decisions that impact on national public expenditure are consistent with macroeconomic stability . The situation in Colombia, after 21 years of enactment of the National Constitution, shows that the revenue of the nation and its possibilities of financing for the complex needs are increasingly limited, and decisions involving fiscal efforts advance on an unsustainable path of spending and financial inability to obtain resources, jeopardizing the fulfillment of state functions and thus the effective realization of the model of the rule of law enshrined in the constitution of 1991.

The objectives of the society, are framed in general terms, on common parameters to promote development, poverty reduction, elimination of inequality and the pursuit of justice and generational equity, to which public revenues, mostly from taxes, are not sufficient to address them, often resorting to internal and external debt, generating an unsustainable development model.

In this scheme the fiscal unsustainability in a welfare state, such as Colombia, reflect the inability of the Government to meet its commitments, leading to adverse effects on economic growth, unemployment and poverty. This means that future generations must make a greater effort in the area of taxes, which present decisions that influence the future trend of expenditure and indebtedness may be missing and fail to intergenerational justice that society demands. Thus, it is essential that decisions on expenditure consult the current and future budget constraints, ie, consistent with the principle of fiscal sustainability.

The Colombian government, with the issuance of the Legislative Act No 03 of 2011, amending the National Constitution of 1991, involved the constitutional principle of fiscal sustainability in Colombia, generating a broad debate on macroeconomic stability, the guarantee and escalation of Fundamental Rights, in the current constitutional model development in the country’s rule of law, a subject of controversy and news of interest to the academic community, and general science, by its impact against the social compact of 91.

Fiscal Sustainability elevated to constitutional decisions will impact future state, its considerations and determine public investment measures and with it the dynamics of development of the country and its citizens, creating anticipation and uncertainty, an issue that should be analyzed from different areas and perspectives of knowledge and social feel influenced by constitutional reform and significantly deeper than has been done in this matter, the Constitution of 1991.