A detailed, in-depth summary of chapter 13 of the book Politics by Andrew Heywood. The summary includes all terms and definitions and is sufficient scope for the exam. This book is often used for first-year political science courses.
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Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA)
Introduction to political science
7321E020FY
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CHAPTER 13 – CONSTITUTIONS, LAW AND JUDGES
- Since the 1970s – the centre of political stage
- Law is widely seen as vital guarantee of public order
CONSTITUTIONS
Constitutions: their nature and origins
- Associated with two key purposes – BUT NOT TRUE
o 1. Believed to provide description of government itself m
o 2. Linchpin of liberal democracy
- Neither is correct → even communist regimes had constitutions
- Purpose of constitution is to bring about stability, predictability, and order to the
actions of the government
o Providing guidance, idea of higher moral power
- Constitution → a set of rules, written or unwritten, that seek to establish the duties,
powers and functions of the various institutions of government
- Relatively recent development – late 18th century
o US Constitution in 1787
o French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizens in 1789
- Constitutions are means of establishing a new political order following the rejection,
collapse or failure of an old other
o Reapportionment of both power and political authority
- Convention → a formal political meeting or agreement reach through debate and
negotiation
Classifying institutions
- Many different ways
o 1. Form of the constitution and status of its rules (written/unwritten,
codified/uncodified)
o 2. The ease with which the constitution can be changed (flexibility)
o 3. The degree to which the constitution is observed in practice (effective,
nominal or façade)
o 4. The content of the institution and the structure
Written and unwritten constitutions
- Written constitutions are enshrined in laws – created
o Most countries
- Unwritten constitutions are embodied in custom and tradition – organic entities
o Only 3 liberal democracies → Israel, New Zealand, UK
o Non-democratic states → Bhutan, Saudi Arabia and Oman
- No constitution is entirely written or unwritten
o More written – France or Germany
o Less written – the IS
- Worldwide trend towards written constitutions
, - Codified constitution → key constitutional provisions are collected together in a
single legal document popularly known as ‘written constitution’ or ‘the constitution’
o based on the existence of a single authoritative document
o highest of the laws
o difficult to amend or abolish
o must be justiciable – all political bodies must be subject to the authority of
courts (constitutional court)
- statute law → law thar is enacted by the legislature
- uncodified constitution → is made up of rules drawn from a variety of sources, in the
absence of a single authoritative document
o UK
o Legislature enjoys sovereign or unchallengeable authority
- Common law → law based on custom and precedent, law that is supposedly
common to all
- Codified constitution → strengths
o Major principles and key constitutional provisions are entrenched
o Power of the legislature is constrained – cutting the sovereignty
o Non-political judged are able to police the constitution to ensure that its
provisions are upheld by other public bodies
o Individual liberty is more securely protected
o Educational values – highlights central values
- Codified constitution → drawbacks
o More rigid
o Government power could be better constrained by regular elections
o Provisions endorsed by history may be more widely respected
o Constitutional documents are inevitably biased
- Popular sovereignty → the principle that there is no higher authority than the will of
the people, directly expressed
- Parliamentary sovereignty → absolute and unlimited authority of a parliament or
legislature (central in UK constitution)
o Absence of codified constitution
o Supremacy of statue law over other forms of law
o Absence of rival legislatures
o The convention that no parliament can bind its successors
Rigid and flexible constitutions
- What procedures exist for amending a constitution? How easily does the constitution
adapt to changing circumstances?
- Uncodified constitution appears to be more flexible → but not true
- There is no simple relationship between written constitutions and rigidity or
unwritten ones and flexibility
- Constitutionalism → the practice of limited government ensured by the existence of
a constitution
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