Power to the People: Constitutionalism in the Age of Populism

Mark Tushnet · Bojan Bugaric

Nov 2021 · Oxford University Press

About this ebook

Self-described populist leaders around the world are dismantling their nation's constitutions. This has led to a widespread view that populism as such is inconsistent with constitutionalism. This book proposes that some forms of populism are inconsistent with constitutionalism, while others aren't. Context and detail matter. Power to the People offers a thin definition of constitutionalism that people from the progressive left to the conservative right should be able to agree on even if they would supplement the thin definition within other more partisan ideas. This is followed by a similarly basic definition of populism. Comparing the two, this book argues that one facet of populism -its suspicion of institutions that are strongly entrenched against change by political majorities-is sometimes inconsistent with constitutionalism's thinly understood definition. The book provides a series of case studies, some organized by nation, others by topic, to identify, more precisely, when and how populist programs are inconsistent with constitutionalism-and, importantly, when and how they are not. Concluding with a discussion of the possibilities for a deeper, populist democracy, the book examines recent challenges to the idea that democracy is a good form of government by exploring possibilities for new, albeit revisable, institutions that can determine and implement a majority's views without always threatening constitutionalism.

About the author

Mark Tushnet is William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law emeritus at Harvard Law School. Before teaching at Harvard, he was a Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin Law School and Georgetown University Law Center. He was President of the Association of American Law Schools in 2003. In 2002 he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Bojan Bugaric is Professor of Law at Sheffield University, School of Law. Before teaching at Sheffield, he was a Professor of Law at the University of Ljubljana, School of Law.