Description
Book SynopsisThis book examines how constitutional courts protect fragile democratic states arising in the wake of authoritarian rule or amidst deep societal divisions of race, religion, or national background. It covers challenges to East Asian, African, and former Soviet democracies, as well as new developments from the Arab Spring.
Trade Review'Samuel Issacharoff's new book is a major contribution to a burgeoning literature on the ways in which courts can protect and improve what the author calls 'fragile democracies' … an ambitious and wide-ranging achievement, and one that will guide the direction of work on judicial role in non-consolidated democracies for years to come.' David E. Landau, International Journal of Constitutional Law
Table of ContentsIntroduction: the burden of modern democracy; Part I. Militant Democracy: 1. The American paradox; 2. The boundaries of democracy; 3. Types of threats; 4. Responses to antidemocratic threats; 5. Judging militant democracy; Part II. Competitive Democracy: 6. Giving up power; 7. The promise of constitutional democracy; 8. Transition in South Africa; 9. The era of constitutional courts; 10. The constitutional bargain; 11. Can law protect democracy?; 12. Constitutionalism in the time of fragile democracies; Epilogue: democratic objectives.
