Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-skm99 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T10:22:09.864Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - Replacing Constitutions in Democratic Regimes

Elite Cooperation and Citizen Participation

from Part I - Conceptual, Normative, and Empirical Issues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2020

Gabriel L. Negretto
Affiliation:
Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
Get access

Summary

This chapter discusses the impact of direct citizen participation and elite cooperation in constitution making on the deepening of an already existing electoral democracy. It argues that cooperation among a plurality of elected political representatives at the constitution-making stage is likely to improve the liberal dimension of democracy after the enactment of the new constitution. Inclusive constitutional agreements at the elite level and the dispersion of power that makes them possible not only facilitate the creation of legal limits on state action but also provide opposition parties and citizens alike with the means to make institutional constraints on executive power and civil liberties effective. This effect is usually observed during the early years of life of the new constitution, when the balance of power among the political forces that created the constitution tends to remain stable. The chapter shows preliminary support for this argument analyzing aggregate data and selected case studies from all episodes of democratic constitution making in the world between 1900 and 2015.

Type
Chapter
Information
Redrafting Constitutions in Democratic Regimes
Theoretical and Comparative Perspectives
, pp. 101 - 128
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alberts, Susan, Warshaw, Chris, and Weingast, Barry. 2010. “Democratization and Countermajoritarian Institutions: Power and Constitutional Design” in Self-Enforcing Democracy. Ginsburg, Tom (ed.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 69100.Google Scholar
Albertus, Michael, and Menaldo, Victor. 2018. Authoritarianism and the Elite Origins of Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Alesina, Alberto, et al. 2003. “Fractionalization.” Journal of Economic Growth 8 (2): 155194.Google Scholar
Arato, Andrew. 1995. “Forms of Constitution Making and Democracy.” Cardozo Law Review 17(2): 191232.Google Scholar
Arato, Andrew. 2009. “Redeeming the Still Redeemable: Post Sovereign Constitution Making.” International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 22(4): 427443.Google Scholar
Arato, Andrew. 2010. “Post Sovereign Constitution Making in Hungary: After Success, Partial Failure, and Now What?South African Journal of Human Rights 26(1): 535555.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arato, Andrew. 2016. Post Sovereign Constitutional Making. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Banks, Angela M. 2008. “Expanding Participation in Constitution Making: Challenges and Opportunities.” William & Mary Law Review 49(4): 10431069.Google Scholar
Bannon, Alicia. 2007. “Designing a Constitution-Drafting Process: Lessons from Kenya.” The Yale Law Journal 116(8): 18241872.Google Scholar
Böhrt Irahola, Carlos. 2013. “El Proceso Constituyente Boliviano” in Los Procesos Constituyentes Boliviano y Ecuatoriano: Análisis Comparativo y Prospectiva. Böhrt Irahola, Carlos and Reyes, Norman Wray (eds.) Stockholm: IDEA International, 9153.Google Scholar
Boix, Carles. 2003. Democracy and Redistribution. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burton, Michael, Gunther, Richard, and Higley, John. 1992. “Introduction: Elite Transformations and Democratic Regimes” in Elites and Democratic Consolidation in Latin America and Southern Europe. Higley, John and Gunther, Richard (eds.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 137.Google Scholar
Carey, John. 2009. “Does It Matter How a Constitution Is Created?” in Is Democracy Exportable?. Barany, Zoltan and Moser, Robert G. (eds.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Collier, Ruth. 1999. Paths Toward Democracy: The Working Class and Elites in Western Europe and South America. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Colón-Ríos, Joel. 2012. Constitutionalism: Democratic Legitimacy and the Question of Constituent Power. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Committee of Experts on Constitutional Review. 2010. Final Report of the Committee of Experts on Constitutional Review. Nairobi, Kenya.Google Scholar
Coppedge, Michael, and Gerring, John, et al. 2011. “Conceptualizing and Measuring Democracy: A New Approach”. Perspectives on Politics 9 (2): 247267.Google Scholar
Coppedge, Michael, et al. 2016. V-Dem Country-Year Dataset v6. Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project.Google Scholar
Eisenstadt, Todd A., LeVan, A. Carl, and Maboudi, Tofigh. 2015. “When Talk Trumps Text: The Democratizing Effects of Deliberation during Constitution-Making.” American Political Science Review 109(3): 592612.Google Scholar
Eisenstadt, Todd A., LeVan, A. Carl, and Maboudi, Tofigh. 2017. Constituents before Assembly. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Eisenstadt, Todd A., and Maboudi, Tofigh. 2019. “Being There Is Half the Battle: Group Inclusion, Constitution Writing, and Democracy.” Comparative Political Studies 52(13–14): 21352170.Google Scholar
Elkins, Zachary, Ginsburg, Tom, and Blount, Justine. 2008. “The Citizen As Founder: Public Participation in Constitutional Approval.” Temple Law Review 81(2): 361382.Google Scholar
Elkins, Zachary, Ginsburg, Tom, and Melton, James. 2009. The Endurance of National Constitutions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Elkins, Zachary, Ginsburg, Tom, and Melton, James. 2017. Characteristics of National Constitutions [v.2.0]. Retrieved at comparativeconstitutionsproject.org.Google Scholar
Escudero, Maria Cristina. 2017. “Determinantes del Éxito de los Procesos Constituyentes Latinoamericanos.” Unpublished dissertation, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.Google Scholar
Fishkin, James. 2011. “Deliberative Democracy and Constitutions.” Social Philosophy and Policy 28(1): 242260.Google Scholar
Gargarella, Roberto. 2013. Latin American Constitutionalism: 1810–2010. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gerring, John. 2006. Case Study Research: Principles and Practices. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ginsburg, Tom, Elkins, Zachary, and Blount, Justine. 2009. “Does the Process of Constitution-Making Matter?American Review of Law and Society 5: 201223.Google Scholar
Haggard, Stephan, and Kaufman, Robert R.. 2017. Dictators and Democrats: Masses, Elites, and Regime Change. New Haven: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hart, Vivien. 2010. “Constitution Making and the Right to Take Part in a Public Affair” in Framing the States in Times of Transition: Case Studies in Constitution Making. Miller, Laurel E. (ed.) Washington, DC: US Institute of Peace Press, 2054.Google Scholar
Held, David. 1987. Models of Democracy. Redwood City: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Higley, John, and Burton, Michael. 2006. Elite Foundations of Liberal Democracy. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Holmes, Stephen, and Sustein, Cass. 1995. “The Politics of Constitutional Revision in Eastern Europe” in Reponding to Imperfection: The Theory and Practice of Constitutional Amendment. Levinson, Sanford (ed.) Princeton: Princeton University Press, 275306.Google Scholar
Horowitz, Donald. 2013. Constitutional Change and Democracy in Indonesia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Jung, Courtney, and Shapiro, Ian. 1995. “South Africa’s Negotiated Transition: Democracy, Opposition, and the New Constitutional Order.” Politics & Society 23(3): 269–308.Google Scholar
Kalyvas, Andreas. 2005. “Popular Sovereignty, Democracy, and the Constituent Power.” Constellations 12(2): 223244.Google Scholar
Kirby, Coel, and Murray, Christina. 2016. “Constitution-Making in Anglophone Africa: We the People?” in Growing Democracy in Africa: Elections, Accountable Governance, and Political Economy. Ndulo, Muna and Gazibo, Mamoudou (eds.) Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 102106.Google Scholar
Loughlin, Martin. 2003. The Idea of Public Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Maddison Project Database, version 2018. Bolt, Jutta, Inklaar, Robert, de Jong, Herman and van Zanden, Jan Luiten (2018), “Rebasing ‘Maddison’: new income comparisons and the shape of long-run economic development”, Maddison Project Working paper 10.Google Scholar
Manin, Bernard. 1997. The Principles of Representative Government. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Marshall, Monty G., Gurr, Ted R., and Jaggers, Keith. 2019. Polity IV Project: Political Regime Characteristics and Transitions, 1800–2008.Google Scholar
Miller, Laurel E. 2011. “Designing Constitution-Making Processes: Lessons from the Past, Questions for the Future” in Framing the States in Times of Transition: Case Studies in Constitution Making. Miller, Laurel E. (ed.) Washington, DC: US Institute of Peace Press, 601666.Google Scholar
Negretto, Gabriel L. 2016. “Constitution Making in Democratic Constitutional Orders: The Challenge of Citizen Participation” in Let the People Rule? Direct Democracy in the Twenty-First Century. Ruth-Lovell, Saskia, Welp, Yanina, and Whitehead, Laurence (eds.) Colchester: ECPR Press, 2140.Google Scholar
Negretto, Gabriel L. 2017. “Constitution Making in Comparative Perspective” in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. Thompson, William R. (ed.) Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Negretto, Gabriel L., and Sánchez-Talanquer, Mariano. 2019. “Constitutional Origins and Liberal Democracy: A Global Analysis.” Paper presented at the 2019 ICON conference, Santiago de Chile, July 1–3, 2019.Google Scholar
O’Donnell, Guillermo, and Shmitter, Philippe. 1986. Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Tentative Conclusions about Uncertain Democracies. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Paine, Thomas. [1791] 1995. “The Rights of Man” in Thomas Paine: Collected Writings. New York: Library of America, 124230.Google Scholar
Pérez-Liñán, Anibal, and Castagnola, Andrea. 2011. “Bolivia: The Rise (and Fall) of Judicial Review” in Courts in Latin America. Helmke, Gretchen and Ríos-Figueroa, Julio (eds.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 278305.Google Scholar
Preuss, Ulrich K. 1995. Constitutional Revolution: The Link between Constitutionalism and Progress. London: Humanities Press International.Google Scholar
Przeworski, Adam. 1988. “Democracy As a Contingent Outcome of Conflicts” in Constitutionalism and Democracy. Elster, Jon and Slagstad, Rune (eds.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 5980.Google Scholar
Sartori, Giovanni. 1962. “Constitutionalism: A Preliminary Discussion.” American Political Science Review 56(4): 853864.Google Scholar
Shugart, Matthew S., and Carey, John. 1992. Presidents and Assemblies: Constitutional Design and Electoral Dynamics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tierney, Stephen. 2012. Constitutional Referendums: The Theory and Practice of Republican Deliberation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Voigt, Stephan. 2004. “The Consequences of Popular Participation in Constitutional Choice: Towards a Comparative Analysis” in Deliberation and Decision: Economics, Constitutional Theory and Deliberative Democracy. van Aaken, Anne, List, Christian, and Luetge, Christoph (eds.) Hants: Ashgate, 199229.Google Scholar
Weingast, Barry, 1997. “The Political Foundations of Democracy and the Rule of Law,” American Political Science Review 91(2): 245263.Google Scholar
Weingast, Barry, 2004. “Constructing Self-Democracy in Spain” in Politics from Anarchy to Democracy: Rational Choice in Political Science. Morris, Irwin L., Oppenheimer, Joe, and Soltan, Karol Edward (eds.) Redwood City: Stanford University Press, 161195.Google Scholar
Widner, Jennifer. 2008. “Constitution Writing in Post-Conflict Settings: Overview.” William and Mary Law Review 49(4): 15131554.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×