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Jacobsohn, Gary; Schor, Miguel --- "Introduction: the comparative turn in constitutional theory" [2018] ELECD 93; in Jacobsohn, Gary; Schor, Miguel (eds), "Comparative Constitutional Theory" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018) 1

Book Title: Comparative Constitutional Theory

Editor(s): Jacobsohn, Gary; Schor, Miguel

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781784719128

Section: Chapter 1

Section Title: Introduction: the comparative turn in constitutional theory

Author(s): Jacobsohn, Gary; Schor, Miguel

Number of pages: 18

Abstract/Description:

Our subject is comparative constitutional theory. As editors of this book we would like to say what was once said in the first installment of a much more significant work: “The subject speaks its own importance.” Of course the author of this declaration, Alexander Hamilton, had such weighty matters as “the existence of the UNION” and “the fate of an empire” in the calculation that brought him to his summary view of The Federalist’s significance to the task at hand. Nothing so consequential is at stake for us, but, beyond stating the obvious, we must address a preliminary question concerning what exactly it is our subject comprehends. A proper response might begin with the issue Hamilton raises in Federalist #1’s opening paragraph, “whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force.” This question is as vital today as it was in the eighteenth century. The collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and authoritarianism in the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America led to renewed optimism about the possibilities of constitutional design at the end of the twentieth century. The populist, authoritarian headwinds buffeting long-standing democracies in the North Atlantic World in the twenty-first century, however, have undermined Whiggish views of democracy’s progress while underscoring the continued importance of questions of design. The Federalist remains relevant to contemporary debates because it provides us with a methodology or a toolbox for thinking