Behind a Veil of Ignorance?: Power and Uncertainty in Constitutional Design

ISBN-13: 9783319149523 / Angielski / Twarda / 2015 / 243 str.

Louis M Imbeau;Steve Jacob

Opis

This book addresses the impact of uncertainty in constitutional design and towhat extent it is possible that constitution drafters and adopters make their decisions behind a veil of ignorance. More fundamentally, this book investigates whether it is possible to infer from constitutional texts the degree of uncertainty faced by constitution drafters and adopters and focuses its attention on constitutional drafting and the role of uncertainty in social choice. This book includes nine independent case studies that investigate the historical account of the making of each constitution, results of the content analysis of the constitutional text and discussion of specific issues raised in the analysis. Also included is an analysis of the degree of prevailing uncertainty in the drafting of sixteen constitutions around the world. This book will be a unique resource for researches and students of constitutional political economy, constitutional power and limits to authority and civil liberties."

Spis treści

​Part 1: Intellectual filiation, theory and method.- Uncertainty in constitutional decision-making: the sociological legacy.- Uncertainty in constitutional decision-making: the political-economy legacy.- Measuring the opacity of the Veil of Ignorance in constitutions: Theory, method.- Part 2: Case studies.- The USA.- Canada.- Belgium.- France.- Germany.- Italy.- Greece.- Switzerland.- Estonia.- Tunisia.- Cameroon.- Conclusion​

O autorze

Louis M. IMBEAU holds a PhD in Political Science from Northwestern and is the Director of the Center for Public Policy Analysis. His research interests include speech and action in fiscal policy, power relations in public policy experts and budget speeches in Quebec. Steve Jacob holds PhD in Political Science from the University of Brussels. His research interests include evaluation of public policies and programs; public administration; managing for results; public performance; ethics and public administration.

Blurb

This volume is a very interesting research project that includes the most careful work on constitutional power and limits to authority of which I am aware. In general, the contributors find that constitutional negotiations normally took place in settings where uncertainty was considerable. They also find that the more detailed the characterization of power relationships, the more liberal and durable the democracy tends to be. Roger D. Congleton

This book addresses the issue of the impact of uncertainty in constitutional design. To what extent do constitution drafters and adopters make their decisions behind a veil of ignorance? More fundamentally, can we infer from constitutional texts the degree of uncertainty faced by constitution drafters and adopters? After an introduction (chapter 1), the book proceeds in two parts. The first part (chapters 2 to 4) introduces to the intellectual filiation of the project and to its theoretical and methodological foundations. The second part (chapters 5 to 13) presents nine case studies built on the same structure: historical account of the making of the Constitution, results of the content analysis of the constitutional text, and discussion of specific issues raised in the analysis. Chapter 14 concludes.