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1 - New Constitutions in Democratic Regimes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2020

By
Gabriel L. Negretto
Edited by
Gabriel L. Negretto
Gabriel L. Negretto
Affiliation:
Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
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Summary

Although many contemporary democracies face popular pressures to profoundly transform or replace their constitutions, there is little systematic academic discussion on the legal and political challenges that these events pose to democratic principles and practices. This book is a collaborative effort by legal scholars and political scientists to analyze these challenges from an interdisciplinary and comparative perspective. This introductory chapter discusses the phenomenon of constitutional redrafting in democratic regimes around the world and the contributions each chapter in the book makes to an understanding of the factors leading to the adoption of new constitutions in the context of free and fair elections, the procedural and political features of these episodes, and the relationship between constitutional replacements in democratic regimes, democratic theory, and democratization.

Keywords

New Constitutionsconstitution makingdemocratic regimesdemocratizationlegalityrepresentationcitizen participation
Type
Chapter
Information
Redrafting Constitutions in Democratic Regimes
Theoretical and Comparative Perspectives
 , pp. 1 - 30
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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