Constituents Before Assembly
Participation, Deliberation, and Representation in the Crafting of New Constitutions

When building democracy through new constitutions, the level of participation matters more than the content of the constitution itself. This book examines this theory.

Todd A. Eisenstadt (Author), A. Carl LeVan (Author), Tofigh Maboudi (Author)

9781316619551, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 13 December 2018

222 pages
23 x 15.1 x 1.2 cm, 0.34 kg

'Comparative constitutional analysis is quite literally as old as Aristotle, as scholars have sought to find the wisest design for political institutions. But recently specialists have realized that politics as much as wisdom is at issue and they have turned their attention to the process by which constitutions are written. The authors of this empirically careful and conceptually sophisticated inquiry walk us through the political implications of who gets a voice, when, and how during a country's constitution drafting process.' Nathan J. Brown, George Washington University, Washington, DC and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Under what circumstances do new constitutions improve a nation's level of democracy? Between 1974 and 2014, democracy increased in seventy-seven countries following the adoption of a new constitution, but it decreased or stayed the same in forty-seven others. This book demonstrates that increased participation in the forming of constitutions positively impacts levels of democracy. It is discovered that the degree of citizen participation at the 'convening stage' of constitution-making has a strong effect on levels of democracy. This finding defies the common theory that levels of democracy result from the content of constitutions, and instead lends support to 'deliberative' theories of democracy. Patterns of constitutions are then compared, differentiating imposed and popular constitution-making processes, using case studies from Chile, Nigeria, Gambia, and Venezuela to illustrate the dynamics specific to imposed constitution-making, and case studies from Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, and Tunisia to illustrate the specific dynamics of popular constitution-making.

Introducing constitutions as political process
1. A call to pens (even if not mightier than swords): how context and process prevail over content in constitutional change
2. Making the constituents King: how constituent deliberation on new constitutions democratizes more than mere citizen participation
3. Parchment politics: the importance of context and conditions to the convening of constitutions
4. The logic of 'top down' elite constitutionalism: how imposed processes may (but usually do not) produce better democracy
5. The logic of 'bottom up' constitutionalism: how popular processes tilt the odds in favor of democracy
6. Interest groups versus individual participation, and the gap between ideal constitutional process and real world practices.

Subject Areas: Constitutional & administrative law [LND], Comparative politics [JPB]