Constitutional Culture and Democratic Rule

by Edited by John Ferejohn , Jack N. Rakove , Jonathan Riley

• ISBN13: 9780521790222
• ISBN10: 0521790220
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-11-19
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This volume investigates the nature of constitutional democratic government in the United States and elsewhere. The editors introduce a basic conceptual framework which the contributors clarify and develop in eleven essays organized into three separate sections. The first section deals with constitutional founding and the founders' use of cultural symbols and traditions to facilitate acceptance of a new regime. The second discusses alternative constitutional structures and their effects on political outcomes. The third focuses on processes of constitutional change and on why founders might choose to make formal amendments relatively difficult or easy to achieve. The book is distinctive because it provides comprehensive tools for analyzing and comparing different forms of constitutional democracy. These tools are discussed in ways that will be of interest to students and readers in political science, law, history and political philosophy.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors	xi
Editors' Introduction	1	(40)
PART ONE. CONSTITUTIONAL BEGINNINGS AND TRANSITIONS
Constitutional Problematics, circa 1787	41	(30)
Jack N. Rakove
Inventing Constitutional Traditions: The Poverty of Fatalism	71	(39)
James Johnson
The Birth Logic of a Democratic Constitution	110	(37)
Lawrence G. Sager
PART TWO. CONSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
Constitutional Democracy as a Two-Stage Game	147	(23)
Jonathan Riley
Imagining Another Madisonian Republic	170	(35)
Jonathan Riley
One and Three: Separation of Powers and the Independence of the Judiciary in the Italian Constitution	205	(18)
Pasquale Pasquino
A Political Theory of Federalism	223	(48)
Jenna Bednar
William N. Eskridge, Jr.
John Ferejohn
PART THREE. CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE AND STABILITY
Designing an Amendment Process	271	(17)
Sanford Levinson
Constitutional Theory Transformed	288	(40)
Stephen M. Griffin
Constitutional Economic Transition	328	(33)
Russell Hardin
Institutionalizing Constitutional Interpretation	361	(32)
Jack Knight
Name Index	393	(6)
Subject Index	399