Constitutional Design and the Urban/Rural Divide

Abstract

Abstract In this article, I consider a curious blind spot in constitutional scholarship concerning the resurging rural/urban divide—a readily evident phenomenon closely associated with political resentment and anti-establishment sentiments—and how we may begin to address that challenge through creative constitutional designs. Specifically, I draw upon insights from comparative constitutionalism to discuss four main areas of constitutional law and theory that appear to hold some intellectual promise in this context: (i) formal constitutional commitment at the national level to recognizing the urban/rural divide and commitment to addressing it; (ii) creative electoral system designs that take into account the spatial dimension of politics; (iii) spatial pluralization based on concepts such as “mixed constitutions,” “community standards,” and “margin of appreciation”; and (iv) rethinking elements of equalization and fiscal federalism more generally. Taken together, the four directions I discuss here offer a repertoire of constitutional design possibilities that hold promise in mitigating the resurging rural/urban gulf. More generally, they serve as an invitation to constitutional thinkers to shake up the rather stagnant constitutional thought of spatial governance, and to think creatively about the ever-expanding urban/rural divide and its consequences for the theory and practice of 21st century constitutional democracy.