Open AccessBook
Constituents Before Assembly: Participation, Deliberation, and Representation in the Crafting of New Constitutions
Reads0
Chats0
TLDR
This article found that the degree of citizen participation at the 'convening stage' of constitution-making has a strong effect on levels of democracy, and this finding defies the common theory that the level of democracy result from the content of constitutions, and instead lends support to 'deliberative' theories of democracy.Abstract:
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.read more
Citations
More filters
Book Review/Response: Constitutional Referendums: The Theory and Practice of Republican Deliberation
Stephen Tierney,Peter C. Oliver +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the role of the Demos Question in the process of constitutive referendums, and discuss the relationship between the demos question and the control of the referendum process.
Journal ArticleDOI
Being There Is Half the Battle: Group Inclusion, Constitution-Writing, and Democracy:
TL;DR: In this paper, the effect of the 195 new constitutions worldwide over the past 40 years on levels of democracy was assessed using an original data set assessing the effect on popular participation and group participation.
Contemporary Nigerian Politics
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used the 2015 presidential election as the basis for a broader analysis of the nature of political struggles and competition in Nigeria's restored elective system, and they focused on the elite pacts that facilitated the military handover of power and on democratic institutions such as political parties and elections.
Journal ArticleDOI
Reconstituting Tunisia: Participation, Deliberation, and the Content of Constitution:
TL;DR: The Tunisian constitutional reform experience in the wake of the Arab Spring as discussed by the authors, through which citizens were able to meet with their representatives, participate in public deliberation over the constit...
References
More filters
Book
An Economic Theory of Democracy
TL;DR: Downs presents a rational calculus of voting that has inspired much of the later work on voting and turnout as discussed by the authors, particularly significant was his conclusion that a rational voter should almost never bother to vote.
Journal ArticleDOI
Exit, voice, and loyalty : responses to decline in firms, organizations, and states
TL;DR: Zimbardo et al. as discussed by the authors studied the effects of severity of initiation and high penalties for exiting from public goods (and evils) on consumer reactions to price rise and quality decline in the case of several connoisseur goods.
Book
Political Order in Changing Societies
TL;DR: This now-classic examination of the development of viable political institutions in emerging nations is a major and enduring contribution to modern political analysis as mentioned in this paper, and its Foreword, Francis Fukuyama assesses Huntington's achievement, examining the context of the original publication as well as its lasting importance.
Journal ArticleDOI
Political Order in Changing Societies.
Book
Democracy in America
TL;DR: De Tocqueville examines the structures, institutions and operation of democracy, and shows how Europe can learn from American success and failures as mentioned in this paper, and also predicts that slavery will bring about the'most horrible of civil wars', foresees that the USA and Russia will be the Superpowers of the twentieth century, and is 150 years ahead of his time in his views on the position and importance of women.