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Analyses why constitution-designers have come to establish institutions protecting constitutional democracy in modern constitutions.
List of contents
1. Introduction; 2. Why a fourth branch - the structural logic; 3. Why a fourth branch - the functional logic; 4. Design issues in general; 5. Design principles in practice - a survey; 6. Anticorruption investigations - case studies from Brazil and South Africa; 7. Electoral commissions - case studies from India, the United States, and South Korea; 8. Audit agencies; 9. Conclusion.
About the author
Mark Tushnet is William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law Emeritus at Harvard Law School. He clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall before beginning his teaching career. He has written more than a dozen books, including Weak Courts, Strong Rights: Judicial Review and Social Welfare Rights in Comparative Constitutional Law (2008) and Advanced Introduction to Comparative Constitutional Law (2014). He was President of the Association of American Law Schools in 2003, and in 2002 was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Summary
Institutions protecting constitutional democracy, such as election commissions and anticorruption investigators, are an increasingly important feature in modern constitutions. The book explains why these institutions are needed in a world where competition among political parties can undermine rather than protect democracy.
Additional text
'In this already indispensable work on the theory and practice of designing innovative government structures to protect constitutional democracy, Tushnet brilliantly and carefully appraises existing 'fourth branch' institutions. A scholarly provocation favoring decentralized structures and remedies with more face-to-face interactions, the book demands reading by all serious scholars of constitutional government.' Vicki C. Jackson, Laurence H. Tribe Professor of Constitutional Law, Harvard Law School
