Jaime Andrés Bassa Mercado (born 31 March 1977) is a Chilean politician and attorney. Bassa has served as the Vice President of the Constitutional Convention of Chile since

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

. A political

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

, Bassa is closely associated with the

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

Broad Front alliance.

Early life and education

Bassa received his law degree from the

Pontifical Catholic University of Chile The Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (''PUC or UC Chile'') ( es, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile) is one of the six Catholic Universities existing in the Chilean university system and one of the two pontifical universities i ...

. He later received

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

s in law from the University of Chile and in philosophy from the

University of Valparaíso The University of Valparaíso (UV) is a state public university in Chile, with its headquarters and the majority of its campuses in the city of Valparaíso. It has several other campuses in the Valparaiso Region of Chile ( Quinta Región) and in ...

. Additionally, Bassa received a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

in law from the

University of Barcelona The University of Barcelona ( ca, Universitat de Barcelona, UB; ; es, link=no, Universidad de Barcelona) is a public university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, in Spain. With 63,000 students, it is one of the biggest universities i ...

. As an academic, Bassa has notably served as a professor of

constitutional law Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a State (polity), state, namely, the executive (government), executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as th ...

at the University of Valparaíso. Bassa was heavily involved in

student politics Student activism or campus activism is work by students to cause political, environmental, economic, or social change. Although often focused on schools, curriculum, and educational funding, student groups have influenced greater political e ...

during his youth, and was generally associated with moderate and

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

politics. During his time in university, Bassa ran for a student position on the same list as

Sebastián Sichel Sebastián Iglesias Sichel Ramírez (born 30 July 1977) is a Chilean lawyer, professor, ex minister of State and politician who served as president of the () from June 2020 until December 2020. He also previously served as Minister of Social ...

Political views

During his early political career, Bassa held centrist or centre-left views. During the 2010s, his political views shifted leftward, and he embraced economic interventionist policies. Bassa has criticized

economic inequality There are wide varieties of economic inequality, most notably income inequality measured using the distribution of income (the amount of money people are paid) and wealth inequality measured using the distribution of wealth (the amount of we ...

in Chile, stating that " is important to note that the wealth of this country is generated by all of us and it is not fair that it is concentrated in a few families". Bassa is a close ally of leftist politician Gabriel Boric, and has endorsed Boric's campaign in the

2021 Chilean general election General elections were held in Chile on 21 November 2021, including presidential, parliamentary and regional elections. Voters went to the polls to elect the President of the Republic to serve a four-year term, 27 of 50 members of the Senate t ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bassa, Jaime Members of the Chilean Constitutional Convention Chilean socialists 21st-century Chilean lawyers Chilean politicians Chilean scholars of constitutional law People from Valparaíso Pontifical Catholic University of Chile alumni University of Chile alumni University of Valparaíso alumni Academic staff of the University of Valparaíso University of Barcelona alumni 1977 births Living people