Two internal critiques of political constitutionalism

Goldoni, M. (2012) Two internal critiques of political constitutionalism. International Journal of Constitutional Law, 10(4), pp. 926-949. (doi: 10.1093/icon/mos033)

Abstract

The antagonism between legal and political constitutionalism has almost monopolized the discussion on constitutional theory during the last years. For this reason, political constitutionalism has been assessed mainly as an alternative to legal constitutionalism. Moving beyond this perspective, this article intends to focus exclusively on political constitutionalism and its internal tensions. After having outlined the main tenets of this theory, two internal critiques are put forward, both concerning the understanding of the political aspect of constitutionalism: first, political constitutionalists propose a reductive account of the principle of political equality; second, their exclusive focus on ordinary politics as the centre of constitutional life is misleading and precludes a correct evaluation of constitutional politics.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Goldoni, Professor Marco
• Authors: Goldoni, M.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Law
• Journal Name: International Journal of Constitutional Law
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• ISSN: 1474-2640
• ISSN (Online): 1474-2659
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2012 The Authors
• First Published: First published in International Journal of Constitutional Law 10(4):926-949
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License