Constitution

About: Constitution is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 37828 publications have been published within this topic receiving 435603 citations.

Discourse and the everyday interactional constitution of ‘power effects’

Abstract: This paper responds to the empirical and analytical challenge that surrounds tracing the constitution of 'power effects of corporate strategy discourse' notably documented in Knights and Morgan's seminal contribution. To meet the empirical challenge,interaction is centralized and ethnographies of strategists at-work are extended to include audiorecording their naturally occurring talk-based interactive routines over time/space. To meet the analytical challenge, the paper turns to two distinct social science traditions—Habermas' critical social theory and ethnostudies set against the stance of 'supplementation'. Habermas' schema suggests a re-conceptualization of strategic practice as a process where strategists routinely draw upon four forms of knowledge, which arguably 'makes-up' any 'Discourse'. These knowledges concern the external, social and subjective domain with the overarching knowledge being language use. Each also raises associated validity claims. While brief, the ethnomethodological perspective provides the fundamental methodology and indicates the ways further analytical texture is yielded to strategizing processes. Taken together, the paper paves the way for fine-grained studies of the everyday interactional constitution of power effects yielding that 'capillary image' of power relations. Two brief transcribed strips of interaction are reproduced from an earlier ethnography to illustrate theoretical, conceptual and analytical possibilities for critical analyses. A complexified notion of 'competence' constituting practice is maintained with the conclusion touching upon how this approach also potentially contributes to critical management education.

Legality and Legitimacy

Abstract: Carl Schmitt ranks among the most original and controversial political thinkers of the twentieth century. His incisive criticisms of Enlightenment political thought and liberal political practice remain as shocking and significant today as when they first appeared in Weimar Germany. Unavailable in English until now, Legality and Legitimacy was composed in 1932, in the midst of the crisis that would lead to the collapse of the Weimar Republic and only a matter of months before Schmitt’s collaboration with the Nazis. In this important work, Schmitt questions the political viability of liberal constitutionalism, parliamentary government, and the rule of law. Liberal governments, he argues, cannot respond effectively to challenges by radical groups like the Nazis or Communists. Only a presidential regime subject to few, if any, practical limitations can ensure domestic security in a highly pluralistic society. Legality and Legitimacy is sure to provide a compelling reference point in contemporary debates over the challenges facing constitutional democracies today. In addition to Jeffrey Seitzer’s translation of the 1932 text itself, this volume contains his translation of Schmitt’s 1958 commentary on the work, extensive explanatory notes, and an appendix including selected articles of the Weimar constitution. John P. McCormick’s introduction places Legality and Legitimacy in its historical context, clarifies some of the intricacies of the argument, and ultimately contests Schmitt’s claims regarding the inherent weakness of parliamentarism, constitutionalism, and the rule of law.

Multilevel Constitutionalism and the Treaty of Amsterdam: European Constitution-Making Revisited?

Abstract: According to the conclusions of the Florence European Council of June 1996, the main objectives of the Intergovernmental Conference were to bring the Union closer to its citizens, to strengthen its capacities for external action and to make its institutions more efficient and democratic given the coming enlargement.1 Thus, comparing this with the scope of the revision clause in Article 48(2) (ex N(2)) TEU after Maastricht, the Conference had undertaken an ambitious venture. The polit ical environment, however, was not found favourable to such substantial aims. Due to the diverging interests of the negotiators, a large volume of complex and confusing provisions, protocols and declarations emerged. This left European integration without the coherence, transparency, effectiveness and democratic legitimacy needed to meet its objectives for the coming century.2 Although the result appears to be poor at first sight, Amsterdam was not a complete failure or "non-event".3 At least three achievements justify qual-

Constitutionalism: A Preliminary Discussion*

Abstract: In the 19th century what was meant by the term “constitution” was reasonably definite and clear. Paradoxically enough, if the word retained some ambiguity, this was because of the British constitution; that is, because the mother country of modern constitutionalism appeared to have an obscure constitution, or even—according to some of the standards that seemed very important elsewhere—no constitution at all.