Constituent Assemblies

Since 1787, constituent assemblies have shaped politics. This book provides a comparative, theoretical framework for understanding them.

Comparative constitutional law has a long pedigree, but the comparative study of constitution-making has emerged and taken form only in the last quarter-century. While much of the initial impetus came from the study of the American and French constituent assemblies in the late eighteenth century, this volume exemplifies the large comparative scope of current research. The contributors discuss constituent assemblies in South East Asia, North Africa and the Middle East, Latin America, and in Nordic countries. Among the new insights they provide is a better understanding of how constituent assemblies may fail, either by not producing a document at all or by adopting a constitution that fails to serve as a neutral framework for ordinary politics. In a theoretical afterword, Jon Elster, an inspirational thinker on the current topic, offers an analysis of the micro-foundations of constitution-making, with special emphasis on the role of crises-generated passions.

Unlike most works in constitutional theory, which focus on the role of the courts, this book addresses the role of legislatures in a regime of constitutional democracy. Bringing together some of the world's leading constitutional scholars and political scientists, the book addresses legislatures in democratic theory, legislating and deliberating in the constitutional state, constitution-making by legislatures, legislative and popular constitutionalism, and the dialogic role of legislatures, both domestically with other institutions and internationally with other legislatures. The book offers theoretical perspectives as well as case studies of several types of legislation from the United States and Canada. It also addresses the role of legislatures both under the Westminster model and under a separation of powers system.

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Notes on contributors -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- 1 "We the people?": politics and the conundrum of framing a constitution on the eve of decolonisation -- 2 Conflict, not consensus: towards a political economy of the making of the Indian Constitution -- 3 Pride and prejudice in Austin's cornerstone: passions in the Constituent Assembly of India -- 4 The antecedents of social rights in India -- 5 The conservative constitution: freedom of speech and the Constituent Assembly Debates -- 6 Freedom of speech in the early constitution: a study of the Constitution (First Amendment) Bill -- 7 Between inequality and identity: the Indian Constituent Assembly Debates and religious difference, 1946-50 -- 8 "We the people": seamless webs and social revolution in India's Constituent Assembly Debates -- 9 India's republican moment -- Index