Populist constitutionalism

Abstract

The chapter provides an attempt to more systematically conceptualize populist constitutionalism, predominantly focusing on the European context. It deals with a theoretically informed discussion of the relation between populism and constitutionalism. Three different reasons warrant such an investigation. First of all, there exists an internal link between populism and the idea of popular sovereignty. Secondly, an intrinsic part of populism concerns a form of legal skepticism, in the sense that populists are wary of the institutions of and limits of liberal constitutionalism, even if they are not necessarily against the idea of a constitutional order as such. Thirdly, populism includes political engagement in projects of constitution-making and constitutional reform. Constitutional instrumentalism entails a conflation of the constituting and the constituted, in that the constitution is not understood as a higher law, but as a fundamental law that can be changed according to political necessity.

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