Costa Rica’s reputation for the zealous protection of human rights has led to the frequent examination of the constitutional history of that state. Carlos Melendez Ch., Hernán Peralta, and Marco Tulio Zeledón are among the outstanding scholars who have produced significant studies designed to explain this phenomenon. Now Oscar Aguilar Bulgarelli has added a small but meaningful synthesis to our stockpile.
Professor Aguilar follows the pattern of his predecessors by analyzing the documents which 150 years of self-government have produced, but his own contribution to these inspections is more than clear; it may be a warning to democratic government everywhere. For Aguilar concludes that through the years the Costa Ricans have encouraged the growth of autonomous agencies of government, at least in part to balance the centralizing tendencies of the chief executive. The danger is that the Costa Ricans may have been too successful, and the present need is to restrict the expansiveness of these agencies. The author proposes the formation of a constituent assembly to modify the present constitution and establish limitations upon the increasing interference in Costa Rican lives. One wonders how the informed Costa Rican will receive these notions.
The author has included a modest bibliography, mostly of local writers, and has added footnotes but no index.
