Constituting Democracy

Author : Heinz Klug
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521786430
Total Pages : 292 pages
Book Rating : 4.36/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Constituting Democracy written by Heinz Klug and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the role of constitutionalism in facilitating political change in South Africa.

Author : Stephen Breyer
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0307424618
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.17/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Active Liberty written by Stephen Breyer and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A brilliant new approach to the Constitution and courts of the United States by Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.For Justice Breyer, the Constitution’s primary role is to preserve and encourage what he calls “active liberty”: citizen participation in shaping government and its laws. As this book argues, promoting active liberty requires judicial modesty and deference to Congress; it also means recognizing the changing needs and demands of the populace. Indeed, the Constitution’s lasting brilliance is that its principles may be adapted to cope with unanticipated situations, and Breyer makes a powerful case against treating it as a static guide intended for a world that is dead and gone. Using contemporary examples from federalism to privacy to affirmative action, this is a vital contribution to the ongoing debate over the role and power of our courts.

Author : Thomas Christiano
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191613916
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.13/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Constitution of Equality written by Thomas Christiano and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2010-06-10 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is the ethical basis of democracy? And what reasons do we have to go along with democratic decisions even when we disagree with them? And when do we have reason to say that we may justly ignore democratic decisions? These questions must be answered if we are to have answers to some of the most important questions facing our global community, which include whether there is a human right to democracy and whether we must attempt to spread democracy throughout the globe. This book provides a philosophical account of the moral foundations of democracy and of liberalism. It shows how democracy and basic liberal rights are grounded in the principle of public equality, which tells us that in the establishment of law and policy we must treat persons as equals in ways they can see are treating them as equals. The principle of public equality is shown to be the fundamental principle of social justice. This account enables us to understand the nature and roles of adversarial politics and public deliberation in political life. It gives an account of the grounds of the authority of democracy. It also shows when the authority of democracy runs out. The author shows how the violations of democratic and liberal rights are beyond the legitimate authority of democracy, how the creation of persistent minorities in a democratic society, and the failure to ensure a basic minimum for all persons weaken the legitimate authority of democracy.

Author : Robert A. Dahl
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300133723
Total Pages : 235 pages
Book Rating : 4.21/5 ( download)

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Download or read book How Democratic Is the American Constitution? written by Robert A. Dahl and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2003-11-10 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this provocative book, one of our most eminent political scientists questions the extent to which the American Constitution furthers democratic goals. Robert Dahl reveals the Constitution's potentially antidemocratic elements and explains why they are there, compares the American constitutional system to other democratic systems, and explores how we might alter our political system to achieve greater equality among citizens. In a new chapter for this second edition, he shows how increasing differences in state populations revealed by the Census of 2000 have further increased the veto power over constitutional amendments held by a tiny minority of Americans. He then explores the prospects for changing some important political practices that are not prescribed by the written Constitution, though most Americans may assume them to be so.

Author : Paolo Sandro
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1509905227
Total Pages : 331 pages
Book Rating : 4.25/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Making of Constitutional Democracy written by Paolo Sandro and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-01-27 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book investigates the deep conceptual structure of the distinction between the creation and the application of law. Legal philosophers either take the distinction for granted or, when they address it directly, they do so only for the purpose of criticizing it as just another upshot of legal formalism. The latter approach suggests the distinction is either unsound or, at the very least, useless. But supporters of this stance do not realize the implications of their positions, which transcend legal/theoretical discourse and raise serious problems in both political and constitutional theory. This book demonstrates that the distinction between the creation and application of law, properly understood, is a central feature of jurisprudence, fundamental to the justification of a legal order, and essential to the separation of powers and the rule of law.

Author : Serdar Tekin
Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN 13 : 081229291X
Total Pages : 208 pages
Book Rating : 4.16/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Founding Acts written by Serdar Tekin and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2016-04-26 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All democratic constitutions feature "the people" as their author and ultimate source of legitimacy. They claim to embody the political form that citizens are in some sense supposed to have given themselves. But in what sense, exactly? When does a constitution really or genuinely speak for the people? Such questions are especially pertinent to our present condition, where the voice of "the people" turns out to be irrevocably fragmented, and people themselves want to speak and be heard in their own voices. Founding Acts explores the relationship between constitutional claims of popular sovereignty and the practice of constitution-making in our pluralistic age. Serdar Tekin argues that the process of making a constitution, or its pedigree, is as morally and politically significant as its content. Consequently, democratic constitution-making is not only about making a democratic constitution but also about making it, as much as possible, democratically. Tekin develops two overarching arguments in support of this claim. First, citizen participation in the process of constitution-making is essential to the democratic legitimacy of a new constitution. Second, collective action, that is, the political experience of constructing public life together, is what binds diverse people into a democratic peoplehood. Bringing into dialogue a wide range of canonical and contemporary thinkers, Tekin examines historical realities extending from revolutionary America and France to contemporary South Africa and Germany.

Author : Christopher L. Eisgruber
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780674006089
Total Pages : 290 pages
Book Rating : 4.89/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Constitutional Self-Government written by Christopher L. Eisgruber and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2001-09-30 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most of us regard the Constitution as the foundation of American democracy. How, then, are we to understand the restrictions that it imposes on legislatures and voters? Why, for example, does the Constitution allow unelected judges to exercise so much power? And why is this centuries-old document so difficult to amend? In short, how can we call ourselves a democracy when we are bound by an entrenched, and sometimes counter-majoritarian, constitution? In Constitutional Self-Government, Christopher Eisgruber focuses directly on the Constitution's seemingly undemocratic features. Whereas other scholars have tried to reconcile these features with majority rule, or simply acknowledged them as necessary limits on democracy, Eisgruber argues that constitutionalism is best regarded not as a constraint upon self-government, but as a crucial ingredient in a complex, non-majoritarian form of democracy. In an original and provocative argument, he contends that legislatures and elections provide only an incomplete representation of the people, and he claims that the Supreme Court should be regarded as another of the institutions able to speak for Americans about justice. At a pivotal moment of worldwide interest in judicial review and renewed national controversy over the Supreme Court's role in politics, Constitutional Self-Government ingeniously locates the Constitution's value in its capacity to sustain an array of institutions that render self-government meaningful for a large and diverse people.

Author : Sanford Levinson
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0195365577
Total Pages : 260 pages
Book Rating : 4.73/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Our Undemocratic Constitution written by Sanford Levinson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Levinson argues that too many of our Constitution's provisions promote either unjust or ineffective government. Under the existing blueprint, we can neither rid ourselves of incompetent presidents nor assure continuity of government following catastrophic attacks. Less important, perhaps, but certainly problematic, is the appointment of Supreme Court judges for life. Adding insult to injury, the United States Constitution is the most difficult to amend or update of any constitution currently existing in the world today. Democratic debate leaves few stones unturned, but we tend to take our basic constitutional structures for granted. Levinson boldly challenges the American people to undertake a long overdue public discussion on how they might best reform this most hallowed document and construct a constitution adequate to our democratic values. "Admirably gutsy and unfashionable." --Michael Kinsley, The New York Times "Bold, bracingly unromantic, and filled with illuminating insights. He accomplishes an unlikely feat, which is to make a really serious argument for a new constitutional convention, one that is founded squarely on democratic ideals." --Cass R. Sunstein, The New Republic "Everyone who cares about how our government works should read this thoughtful book." --Washington Lawyer

Author : Thomas Christiano
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198297475
Total Pages : 316 pages
Book Rating : 4.75/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Constitution of Equality written by Thomas Christiano and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2008-05-08 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today the question of the moral foundations of democracy is more important then ever. In this book the author helps to explain when and why democracy is important and also gives us guidance as to how democracies ought to be shaped.

Author : Rosalind Dixon
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0192893769
Total Pages : 241 pages
Book Rating : 4.65/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Abusive Constitutional Borrowing written by Rosalind Dixon and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Law is fast globalizing as a field, and many lawyers, judges and political leaders are engaged in a process of comparative borrowing. But this new form of legal globalization has darksides: it is not just a source of inspiration for those seeking to strengthen and improve democratic institutions and policies. It is increasingly an inspiration - and legitimation device - for those seeking to erode democracy by stealth, under the guise of a form of faux liberal democratic cover. Abusive Constitutional Borrowing: Legal globalization and the subversion of liberal democracy outlines this phenomenon, how it succeeds, and what we can do to prevent it. This book address current patterns of democratic retrenchment and explores its multiple variants and technologies, considering the role of legitimating ideologies that help support different modes of abusive constitutionalism. An important contribution to both legal and political scholarship, this book will of interest to all those working in the legal and political disciplines of public law, constitutional theory, political theory, and political science.