The Colombian Political Constitution of 1991 developed a social State of Law founded on a constitutional design, which implies a system of checks and balances for the exercise of power. From a formalist perspective, it is an important contri-bution so that state decisions respond to a balance between different demands that ultimately benefit the general interest over the individual. However, from an anti-formalist perspective, political phenomena are evident that put an apparently plausible design at risk; political practices tend to benefit the particular interest over the general. It is a recurring phenomenon in the Colombian reality, where there seems to be a risk for the full materialization of the weighted postulates of checks and balances for the constitutional rule of law.