A Journey to the Centre of Political Constitutionalism: Is there a Role for Direct Democracy?
PLEASE CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FULL DISSERTATION
Daniel Jukes is a 22-year-old law graduate from Durham. Having graduated in the summer of 2020, he is currently studying the Bar course in London. Daniel chose to write about constitutional theory having become interested in this area during his first year at university. Following the high-profile Brexit referendum, Daniel became fascinated by how such a significant constitutional event could fit into the constitutional order of the United Kingdom, that traditionally had no place for referendums. Over the course of writing this dissertation, Daniel came to realise that political constitutionalists, who have historically dominated the United Kingdom’s constitutional landscape, have made many assumptions about how their theory should be institutionalised without giving satisfactory justifications. In the future, Daniel hopes to research further the extent to which direct democracy is compatible with the political constitution and specifically what practical elements need to be given further consideration. Finally, another potential area of research would be into the philosophical justification for political equality being the main touchstone of the political constitution.
Introduction
The aim of this dissertation is to fill the gap in political constitutionalist thinking and explore the desirability of a more direct political constitutionalist theory. This will be achieved by analysing the constitutionalist debate, arguing that political constitutionalism is the best way to organise power within a constitution and identifying the normative principles that underpin the theory. Then this dissertation will examine how far these principles go; arguing they ought to lead to a more direct system of representation. Therefore, the discussion will begin on a normative and theoretical level before transitioning to a more institutional-focused study.
In chapter 2, political constitutionalism will be critically evaluated to find the underlying normative principles that support this view of constitutionalism. It will be shown that political equality is the key tenet which leads to a theory that respects disagreement and uses majority decision-making to find consensus. It will also be highlighted that because of this, political constitutionalism is the preferable way to organise power within a constitution. Then, in chapter 3, legal constitutionalism will be analysed, comparing it to political constitutionalism, setting out the theory’s key principles and explaining why they are flawed. Finally, chapter 4 will examine how far the underlying values of political constitutionalism extend. The classic accounts of political constitutionalism and representative democracy will be critiqued, highlighting a blindness by such theorists to not fully consider where their theories logically end up. Direct democracy will be shown to better reflect the key principles of political constitutionalism. There will then be some practical discussion about the issues with direct democracy and how they can be mitigated. Whilst this dissertation will primarily rely on academic literature originating in the UK and the US, the arguments made are applicable to constitutional theory in general.
