Constitutional Democracy: Creating and Maintaining a Just Political Order

The Johns Hopkins Series in Constitutional Thought

by Walter F. Murphy

Constitutional democracy is a political hybrid, the product of an uneasy union between, on the one hand, the normative theories of constitutionalism and democracy and, on the other, the desire to live under what James Madison called "free government." In this engaging and provocative work, Walter F. Murphy combines a lifetime's study of constitutions and democracy with traditional storytelling to answer fundamental questions about constitutional How is it created? How is it maintained? How can it be adapted to changing circumstances? Murphy begins with a definitional section on constitutions, constitutional texts, constitutionalism, and democracy. Next, he tells the story of how a democracy is established within the context of a fictional constitutional convention for a fictional country. He follows delegates―many of whose arguments track those of real-life political, economic, and legal theorists―as they debate and draft the components of a constitution. Here, the reader comes to understand and appreciate the components of a constitutional text and the contingency and potential of the constitution-making process. Murphy then offers an expository analysis of constitutional maintenance, adaptation, and, essentially, constitutional change.

568 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2006

About the author

Walter F. Murphy is a 20th century American political scientist and writer. He won a Distinguished Service Cross for his service as a Marine in Korea, eventually retiring with the rank of colonel. He held the chair of McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton. His professional writing, consisting mostly of non-fiction works on political science, includes the classic Constitutional Democracy; he has also written three popular novels.

Reviews

[rania · Rating 4 out of 5]

insightful and thought provoking, clear and organized writing and argumentation, learned a lot and made me revisit a lot of my own views. not fully sure how i feel about the quasi-narrative situation with nusquam but can appreciate the vision. absolutely do not want to hear the term “constitutional democracy” for at least the next 6 months