NEW BOOK - OPEN ACCESS

 
 

JUST PUBLISHED: 16 DECEMBER 2024

At a time of seismic change in democracies and party systems worldwide, this timely open access collection presents a suite of essays on the constitutional functions of political parties and the constitutional law of electoral design. Combining perspectives from both theory and practice, the book connects historical and contemporary practices as well as bringing the work of political scientists and comparative constitutional lawyers into conversation.

Demoptimism spoke with the editors, Professors Tom Ginsburg, Aziz Huq and Tarunabh Khaitan:

“Constitutional theory’s relative indifference to political parties has long impoverished our discipline. Constitutional institutions and political party systems are mutually co-constitutive. A wise designer of constitutions would attend to them simultaneously. So should a constitutional scholar.”

 
 

  • 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.

    • 1 - Introduction―Tom Ginsburg, Aziz Z. Huq, Tarunabh Khaitan

      Part I - Understanding the Crisis

    • 2 - Majoritarianism and Minoritarianism in the Law of Democracy―Samuel Issacharoff & Richard H. Pildes.

    • 3 - Constitutions and Abusive Electoral Regulation―Rosalind Dixon & David Landau

      Part II - Constitutionalization

    • 4 - Political Parties in Constitutional Theory―Tarunabh Khaitan

    • 5 - The Constitutionalization of Parties and Politics―Tom Ginsburg & Mila Versteeg

    • Select 6 - Tackling Winner-Takes-All Politics in Africa―Adem Kassie Abebe

    • 7 - Parties versus Democracy―Tom Gerald Daly & Brian Christopher Jones

    • 8 - What Is the Value of a Constitutionalized Right to Vote?―Yasmin Dawood

      Part III - Specific Institutions

    • 9 - Democratic Design and the Twin Contemporary Challenges of Fragmented and Unduly Concentrated Political Power―Stephen Gardbaum

    • 10 - Courts as Constitutional Rule-Makers for Elections and Parties―Aziz Z. Huq

    • 11 - The Durability and Dynamism of American Indian Constitutional Reform―Elizabeth H. Reece

    • 12 - Eternity Clauses and Electoral Democracy―Silvia Suteu

    • 13 - Monarchy and Democracy in Modern Malaysia―Yvonne Tew

  • Tom Ginsburg is Leo Spitz Distinguished Professor of International Law, Ludwig and Hilde Wolfe Research Scholar, and Faculty Director of the Malyi Center for the Study of Institutional and Legal Integrity at the University of Chicago Law School.

    Aziz Z. Huq is Frank and Bernice J. Greenberg Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School.

    Tarunabh Khaitan is Professor (Chair) of Public Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science.


 

TASTER TEXT

Introduction

Tom Ginsburg, Aziz Huq & Tarunabh Khaitan

The burgeoning literature in comparative constitutional has not devoted sufficient attention to the constitutional functions of political parties, nor has it systematically explored the constitutional law of electoral design. This volume examines the constitutional treatment of parties and elections both as a matter of constitutional theory and from the perspective of historical and contemporary practice (…)

TASTER TEXT

Parties versus Democracy

Tom Gerald Daly and Brian Christopher Jones

Recent years have witnessed the rise of a range of authoritarian populist, illiberal, far-right, nativist, and extremist parties. We have seen democratic structures threatened or incrementally dismantled through the subversion of an established democratic party by an outsider or ascendance of the extremist wing of a right-wing party (…)