Oversikter och meddelanden. Konstitution som konsten att borja om
In: Statsvetenskaplig tidskrift, Band 108, Heft 4, S. 389-398
ISSN: 0039-0747
The negative outcome of the referenda on the European Constitution in France and the Netherlands raises challenging questions about the nature of constitution-making. How does one begin a democracy? Does it matter who writes the constitution? The present essay addresses the distinction between the constituent and the constituted power, seen through the eyes of three thinkers: Hannah Arendt, Emmanuel Sieyes and Rogers M. Smith. It looks at Arendt's notion of beginning, Sieyes's idea of the nation as the constitutent power behind government, and Smith's proposal of a people constituted through political contestation. References.