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This volume of essays brings together a group of leading political scientists, legal scholars, and political theorists to describe and analyze the body of constitutional law and practice within and upon democratic institutions, in particular examining how constitutional law shapes electoral democracy. Constitutional law and practice on this question are complex and varied. This volume therefore takes a thematic and regional approach: it selects a range of key theoretical questions related to democratic constitutional design and offers a series of chapters featuring a diverse range of voices, as well as a blend of theory, qualitative studies, and quantitative methods. Readers will gain a multifaceted understanding of a phenomenon of growing importance. The volume will also be useful to students of comparative constitutionalism, who will gain a rich array of empirical evidence to stimulate further work. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
List of contents
1. Introduction Tom Ginsburg, Aziz Huq and Tarun Khaitan; Part I. Understanding the Crisis: 2. Majoritarianism and minoritarianism in the law of democracy Sam Issacharoff and Richard H. Pildes; 3. Constitutions & abusive electoral regulation Rosalind Dixon and David Landau; Part II. Constitutionalization: 4. The constitutionalization of elections and parties Tom Ginsburg and Mila Versteeg; 5. Political parties in constitutional theory Tarun Khaitan; 6. The winner shall not take all: constitutional regulation and empowerment of opposition parties in Africa Adam Abebe; 7. Parties versus democracy: addressing today's political party threats to democratic rule Tom Gerald Daly and Brian Jones; 8. What is the value of a constitutionalized right to vote? Yasmin Dawood; Part III. Specific Institutions: 9. Political parties, voting systems, and the twin challenges of fragmented and unduly concentrated political power Stephen Gardbaum; 10. Off the reservation voting: dynamic responses to diaspora Elizabeth Reese; 11. Courts as constitutional rule-makers for elections and parties: some comparative evidence Aziz Huq; 12. Eternity clauses and electoral democracy Silvia Suteu; 13. Monarchy and Democracy in Modern Malaysia Yvonne Tew; Index.
Summary
In democracies, constitutions set the term of political contestation. In our era of democratic backsliding, they shape the probabilities of democracy's survival and decay. This volume considers the legal and political issues related to constitutional design of elections, parties, and voters, featuring a diverse range of voices.
