Constitutional democracy : creating and maintaining a just political order
Constitutional democracy is a political hybrid, the product of an uneasy union between, on the one hand, the normative theories of constitutionalism and democracy and, on the other, the desire to live under what James Madison called "free government." In this engaging and provocative work, Walter F. Murphy combines a lifetime's study of constitutions and democracy with traditional storytelling to answer fundamental questions about constitutional democracy: How is it created? How is it maintained? How can it be adapted to changing circumstances? Murphy begins with a definitional section on constitutions, constitutional texts, constitutionalism, and democracy. Next, he tells the story of how a democracy is established within the context of a fictional constitutional convention for a fictional country. He follows delegates -- many of whose arguments track those of real-life political, economic, and legal theorists -- as they debate and draft the components of a constitution. Here, the reader comes to understand and appreciate the components of a constitutional text and the contingency and potential of the constitution-making process. Murphy then offers an expository analysis of constitutional maintenance, adaptation, and, essentially, constitutional change
Print Book, English, 2007
Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2007
xviii, 547 pages ; 25 cm.
9780801884702, 9780801891076, 0801884705, 0801891078
63703803
Creating a constitutional democracy. Values, interest, and goals
Alternative political systems
Alternative political systems : the debate
The possibility of constitutional democracy
To draft or not to draft a constitutional text
Drafting I : the shape of the constitution
Drafting 2 : the judiciary
Drafting 3 : A bill of rights
Drafting 4 : special cases
Maintaining a constitutional democracy. Creating citizens
Military and security forces
Rebuilding the machinery of state : the bureaucracies
Dealing with deposed despots
Constitutional interpretation as constitutional maintenance
Constitutional change and its limits
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