What is a Constitution? Principles and Concepts - IDEA
What is a Constitution? Principles and Concepts
International IDEA Constitution-Building Primer 1
What is a Constitution? Principles and Concepts
International IDEA Constitution-Building Primer 1
Elliot Bulmer
? 2017 International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance Second edition. First published in 2014 by International IDEA.
International IDEA publications are independent of specific national or political interests. Views expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent the views of International IDEA, its Board or its Council members.
The electronic version of this publication is available under a Creative Commons AttributeNonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) licence. You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the publication as well as to remix and adapt it, provided it is only for non-commercial purposes, that you appropriately attribute the publication, and that you distribute it under an identical licence. For more information visit the Creative Commons website: .
International IDEA Str?msborg SE?103 34 Stockholm Sweden Telephone: +46 8 698 37 00 Email: info@idea.int Website:
Design and layout: International IDEA Cover illustration: ? 123RF,
ISBN: 978-91-7671-185-9
Created with Booktype:
International IDEA
Contents
1. Introduction ............................................................................................................ 5
2. The fundamentals of constitutions ...................................................................... 6
The functions of a constitution ............................................................................... 6 The constitution at the intersection of legal, social and political life ........................ 8 Two constitutional archetypes ................................................................................. 9 What does a constitution typically contain? ........................................................... 10 The constitution and the constitutional order ....................................................... 12
3. Constitutions and democracy ............................................................................. 13
Why have a constitution? ...................................................................................... 13 Democratic constitutionalism as a global norm ..................................................... 15 Elite accommodation ............................................................................................ 15 Inclusive bargains and precommitments ................................................................ 17 Constitutions, corruption and good citizenship ..................................................... 19
References ................................................................................................................ 21
Annex ......................................................................................................................... 23
About the author ................................................................................................... 23 About International IDEA .................................................................................... 24 About ConstitutionNet ......................................................................................... 25 More International IDEA publications on constitution-building processes ............ 26 About this series .................................................................................................... 27
1. Introduction
1. Introduction
The vast majority of contemporary constitutions describe the basic principles of the state, the structures and processes of government and the fundamental rights of citizens in a higher law that cannot be unilaterally changed by an ordinary legislative act. This higher law is usually referred to as a constitution.
The content and nature of a particular constitution, as well as how it relates to the rest of the legal and political order, varies considerably between countries, and there is no universal and uncontested definition of a constitution. Nevertheless, any broadly accepted working definition of a constitution would likely describe it as a set of fundamental legal-political rules that:
1. are binding on everyone in the state, including ordinary law-making institutions;
2. concern the structure and operation of the institutions of government, political principles and the rights of citizens;
3. are based on widespread public legitimacy; 4. are harder to change than ordinary laws (e.g. a two-thirds majority vote or
a referendum is needed); and 5. as a minimum, meet the internationally recognized criteria for a
democratic system in terms of representation and human rights.
International IDEA 5
................
................
In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.
To fulfill the demand for quickly locating and searching documents.
It is intelligent file search solution for home and business.
Related download
- guided reading activity social sciences
- protecting local authority in state constitutions and challenging
- what is a constitution principles and concepts
- state fiscal constitutions a modest proposal rutgers law review
- q61 introduction to federalism and state constitutions
- the governance of land use oecd
- lesson 4 state constitutions and local charters
- c the constitution of the united states teaching a unit on the
- state constitutions freedom s frontier cato institute
- state constitutions and fiscal policy mercatus center
Related searches
- what is a theme of a story
- what is a theme in a story
- what is a cause and effect relationship
- what is a widget on a smartphone
- what is a unit rate and examples
- what is a linear and nonlinear
- accounting what is a debit and credit
- what is a debit and credit
- what is a red moon and deer
- k is thousand what is a million
- what is a debit and credit accounting
- what is a growth and income fund