Abstract
What is the relationship between constitutional order and the emergence of oligarchic politics in contemporary democratic societies? How and to what extent does constitutional design contribute to oligarchic politics in contemporary liberal democratic states? Focusing on constitutional discourses, rather than the legal positivist interpretation of the constitution (or constitutions as text), I maintain that state constitutions should be understood as an ideational-discursive realm of competing discourses, paradigms, and interpretations of an ideal state. My main argument states that oligarchic democracies emerge because a coalition of stakeholders that promote neoliberal understanding of the constitution has taken hold of this discursive realm of constitutional interpretation both within the state apparatus and the public sphere. Thus, the crisis of democratic representation and its relationship to constitutional design represents ideational and materialist aspects: oligarchs promote, reinforce, and sustain self-serving constitutional interpretations and discourses that reinforce the political logic of oligarchic wealth accumulation while suppressing the politics of peaceful dissent and distributive justice.
Highlights
A constitutional framework embodies the foundational identity of a given political order
Constitutional orders depend upon its ability to manage, and sometimes to constrain, the power-consolidating tendencies of state leaders and its agents, but perhaps, more importantly, they have to withstand the test of time.[1]
The principal yardstick for the success of a constitution is its ability to facilitate the emergence of a Leviathenesque state that legitimately rules based on rules, order, cohesion, collective interest in enabling its individual members to thrive in the spirit of freedom.[2]
Summary
The present, and serves a guide upon which governance challenges could be addressed. Constitutional orders depend upon its ability to manage, and sometimes to constrain, the power-consolidating tendencies of state leaders and its agents, but perhaps, more importantly, they have to withstand the test of time.[1]. The second part discusses in detail the three main points of the article: (1) constitution as a fluid, discursive, and combative realm of competing interpretations, or what I call as contentious politics of socio-legal discourses; (2) the emergence of oligarchic rule demonstrates how a neoliberal rights oligarchic coalition within the state-society sphere has momentarily gained control of such a discursive realm; and (3) the origins of oligarchic power coalitions in supposedly liberal democratic societies. The final part concludes this article with some broad normative prescriptions on how the domination of the neoliberal rights coalition can be undercut in pursuit of a more just and democratic state
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