Principles of Constitutional Design [Paperback]

This book sets forth a philosophy of constitutional design.The book is designed to be educative for even those not engaged directly in constitutional design but who would like to come to a better understanding of the nature and problems of constitutionalism and its fundamental building blocks - especially popular sovereignty and the separation of powers.The book is designed to be educative for even those not engaged directly in constitutional design but who would like to come to a better understanding of the nature and problems of constitutionalism and its fundamental building blocks - especially popular sovereignty and the separation of powers.This book is written for anyone, anywhere sitting down to write a constitution. The book is designed to be educative for even those not engaged directly in constitutional design but who would like to come to a better understanding of the nature and problems of constitutionalism and its fundamental building blocks - especially popular sovereignty and the separation of powers. Rather than a 'how-to-do-it' book that explains what to do in the sense of where one should end up, it instead explains where to begin - how to go about thinking about constitutions and constitutional design before sitting down to write anything. Still, it is possible, using the detailed indexes found in the book, to determine the level of popular sovereignty one has designed into a proposed constitution and how to balance it with an approximate, appropriate level of separation of powers to enhance long-term stability.1. Constitutionalism - an initial overview and introduction; 2. Sovereignty; 3. Popular sovereignty; 4. The separation of powers; 5. Analyzing the interaction between popular control and separation of powers in the amendment process; 6. Matching a government to a people; 7. An overview of the constitutional design project; 8. An underlying constitutional logic - rational actors? What it does with admirable clarity and lucidity is examine thel#g