EL CONSTITUCIONALISMO DE TERCERA GENERACIÓN: ROMPIENDO LA TENSIÓN ENTRE LA DEFINICIÓN SOCIAL DEL ESTADO Y EL TRATAMIENTO CONSTITUCIONAL DEGRADADO DE LOS DERECHOS SOCIALES

Abstract

One of the characteristics of the social or second generation constitutionalism, where we find, among many others, the Spanish Constitution of 1978, has been the tension between the social definition of the state and the degraded constitutional treatment of social rights. Can a Social State be developed without full constitutional protection and judicial enforcement of social rights?. The latest constitutional process in the Andean countries has involved the establishment of a constitutional model of strong social content and full protection and judicial enforcement of social rights, which overcomes the old tensions and are the manifestation of what can undoubtedly be called a new third generation constitutionalism. The present article is about what mechanisms the new constitutions of the Andean countries use to overcome this tension, and why we can talk of third generation constitutionalism.