Description
Book Synopsis“Constitution” is a rich term in Western political culture, encompassing political and juridical doctrine as well as government practices through the ages. This volume examines “constitutional moments” in history, those occasions or episodes when significant steps were taken in the definition or redefinition of polities. Their actors were writers or politicians, rulers or ruled, who found inspiration in a distant past or instead looked towards a future to be drawn anew. This book sheds light on such moments from Ancient Greece to the present day, mostly in Europe but also in the Ottoman world and the Americas, thereby uncovering a revealing variety of constitutional thinking and action throughout history. Contributors are: Jon Arrieta, Niall Bond, Luc Brisson, Peter Cholakov, Nora Chonowski, Angela De Benedictis, F. Sinem Eryilmaz, Hakon Evju, Pablo Fernández Albaladejo, Javier Fernández Sebastián, Merieke Gebhardt, Xavier Gil, Mark J. Hill, Ferenc Hörcher, Jaska Kainulainen, Thomas Lorman, Adriana Luna-Fabritius, Ere Nokkala, Brian Kjaer Olesen, András Pap, Nikola Regent, Alberto Mariano Rodríguez Martínez, Pablo Sánchez León, José Reis Santos, and Ersin Yildiz.
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Notes on Contributors Introduction Xavier Gil Part 1 Ancient and Medieval Times 1 The Critic of the Family (oikos) at the Foundations of Plato’s Political Doctrine Myth and Reality Luc Brisson 2 The Influence of Roman Law on Medieval Bulgarian Legislation Sources and Developments of the Main Constitutional Issues Petar Cholakov Part 2 Renaissance and Early Modern Era Section 1 Myths and Politics 3 Biscay in the Spanish Monarchy Myth, History, and Law in the Making of Its Constitutional Regime (14th to 17th Centuries) Jon Arrieta 4 The Myth of Sobrarbe between Old Europe and the New World A Reassessment Angela De Benedictis 5 Law, Wisdom, and Politics in Making Süleyman “The Lawgiver” Fatma Sinem Eryılmaz Section 2 Governance and Change 6 After Revolts Moments for Constitutional Refashioning in Early Modern Europe Xavier Gil 7 Accommodatio in the Jesuit Constitutions Jaska Kainulainen 8 The Monarchical Moment Constitutionalism, Lutheran Political Thought, and the Rise of Danish Absolutism Brian Kjær Olesen 9 A Model Republican Constitution? Guicciardini vs. Machiavelli on the Roman Example Nikola Regent 10 The Union of Utrecht An Unfinished Constitutional Definition between Federalism and Particularism in the Low Countries (1579–1621) Alberto Mariano Rodríguez Martínez Part 3 The Enlightenment 11 Ancient Constitutionalism in the Age of Enlightenment The Case of Denmark-Norway Håkon Evju 12 Rousseau and Poland Pragmatic Rebirth Rather than Idealistic Reforms? Mark J. Hill 13 The Lawgiver in Eighteenth-Century Neapolitan Political Thought Charting Mediterranean Liberalism Adriana Luna-Fabritius 14 From Masterpiece of Modern Legislation to an Aristocratic Oligarchy Contemporary European Appraisals of the Swedish Constitution of the Age of Liberty (1719–1772) Ere Nokkala Part 4 The Nineteenth Century 15 “Dark Spots of Our History” Martínez Marina and Foundational Myths in Eighteenth-Century Spain Pablo Fernández Albaladejo 16 The Metamorphoses of a Historical Constitution Longue durée Developments in Nineteenth-Century Hungarian Constitutional and Political Thought Ferenc Hörcher and Thomas Lorman 17 Constitutional Imagination and “Catholic” Political Anthropology The Grammar of the Mixed Constitution in the Mid-19th Century Crisis of Spanish Liberalism Pablo Sánchez León Part 5 The Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries 18 The Weimar Constitutional Moment Constitutionalism, Theoretical Debate and Political Conflict Ersin Yildiz 19 The Portuguese Estado Novo Constitutional Process as a Model for Transitioning to Authoritarianism in the Europe of the New Order José Reis Santos 20 The Framing of a Liberal Democratic Constitution in Post-War Western Germany Niall Bond 21 From 1989 to 2010 Founding Myths and Moments of the Liberal and the Illiberal Constitutional Revolutions in Hungary Nóra Chronowski and András L. Pap Part 6 Theoretical Issues 22 An Unbroken Continuity? Constitutional Crises and Historical Imagination Javier Fernández-Sebastián 23 The Dirty Secret of New Beginnings Founding a Democracy between Nothing and Narration Mareike Gebhardt Index
